THE  LIBRARIES 


A  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN 
WAR  TIME 


^T|^^ 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •    BOSTON  •    CHICAGO  -    DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


A  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN 
WAR  TIME 

AMERICAN    FRIENDS    RELIEF 
WORK  IN  EUROPE,    1917-1919 


BY 

RUFUS  M.  JONES 

Author  of  "The  Inner  Life,'* 
"The  World  Within,"  etc. 


It. 


T 


jf!3eto  gork 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1920 

All  rights  reserved 


V64^r7 


Copyright,  1920, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


TO 

THE  MEMORY  OF 

ISAAC    SHARPLESS 

One  of  the  truest,  best  and  most  loved  men  I  have 

ever  known,  who,  though  gone  into  the 

unseen,  has  left  a  luminous  trail  of 

light  behind  him,  this  book  is 

aflFectionately  dedicated 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTEH  PAGE 

Introduction        xi 

I    Preparatory  Steps 1 

II    Formation  of  Plans 8 

III  "The  Haverford  Unit" 17 

IV  The  Work  of  English  Friends  and  the  Plan  of 

Cooperation  with  It 28 

V    Problems  of  the  Draft 47 

VI    Getting  Under  Way 60 

VII  Getting  the  Entire  Society  of  Friends  Behind 

the  Work 77 

VIII    The  Keepers  of  the  Faith 85 

IX    Furloughed  for  Reconstruction 109 

X    In  Paris  at  the  Center 126 

XI    Medical  Work 144 

XII  The  Work  of  the  Agricultural  Department  .     .  157 

XIII  Evacuations   in   the   Spring   1918 173 

XIV  Relief  Work  and  Other  Forms  of  Service     .     .  190 
XV    Building  and  Reconstruction 209 

XVI    The  Verdun  Project 227 

XVII    American  Friends  Service  Work  in  Other  Lands  244 

Appendix  A 
American  Reconstruction  Workers  in  France  267 

Appendix  B 

Equipes  and  Centers  of  V/ork  in  France    .      .  283 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Friends  Service  Star Title  Page 

FACING 
PAGE 

Chateau  Hospital  Sermaize 151 

Tractor   Plowing 171 

A  Group  of  Refugees 183 

A  Glimpse  of  tbe  C2^e  in  Besangon  Park 188 

Building  Demountable  Houses     .      , 217 

Map  of  the  Verdun  Area 227 

The  Cite  des  Amis  (Neuvilly) 236 


INTRODUCTION 

This  book  does  not  profess  to  be  a  history  of  the  work  of 
relief  and  reconstruction  which  Friends  have  done  in 
France  and  Russia  and  in  other  countries  since  the  fateful 
autumn  of  1914.  Only  one  who  has  been  in  the  thick  of  the 
work  on  the  field  can  write  the  final,  intimate  history  of  any 
one  of  the  major  relief  undertakings  of  Friends.  And  as 
the  work  since  1917  has  been  a  joint  endeavor  of  English 
and  American  Friends  the  complete  history  of  it  must  be 
composite,  i.  e.  written  by  both  English  and  Americans.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  persons  of  leisure  will  be  found  in  the  not 
distant  future  who  can  tell  with  sufficient  detail  the  inter- 
esting story  of  the  labors  of  this  large  band  of  volunteers 
who  have  rebuilt  homes,  revived  agriculture,  restored  the 
spirits  of  depressed  refugees,  saved  the  lives  of  many  chil- 
dren and  reconstructed  extensive  areas  of  the  desolated  war- 
zones,  who  have  gone  out  with  living  faith  and  with  efficient 
relief  into  some  of  the  darkest  regions  of  the  suffering  world, 
both  in  war-time  and  in  the  no  less  appalling  period  which 
has  followed  the  armistice. 

My  attempt  is  much  more  modest.  I  am  merelj^  endeavor- 
ing here  to  interpret  the  effort  which  American  Friends 
have  made  to  express  their  spirit  of  human  love  to  a  part  of 
the  world — an  innocent  part — caught  in  the  awful  tangle 
of  the  tragedy.  I  should  not  have  written  it,  certainly  not 
at  this  time,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  irresistible  appeal  of 
Isaac  Sharpless,  President  Emeritus  of  Haverford  College, 
who  laid  the  task  upon  me  with  an  urgency  I  could  not  with- 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

stand.  He  wanted  this  much  of  the  story  told  while  it  was 
still  fresh  and  lively  and  he  insisted  that  I  must  undertake 
it.  I  told  him  that  I  was  too  busy  and  could  not  stop  to  do 
it.  He  replied  with  his  usual  calm  rejoinder  which  no  one 
could  ever  resist :  ' '  Nevertheless  thee  must  do  it — a  man  can 
always  do  more  than  he  is  doing!"  After  that  I  knew  I 
had  to  do  it,  even  if  it  was  impossible,  for  more  than  once 
he  has  laid  his  hand  on  me  to  do  the  impossible. 

I  have  made  as  little  reference  to  persons,  including  my- 
self, as  was  possible  since  this  has  been  a  corporate  work  and 
not  an  individual's  doing.  In  the  Odyssey  everything  cen- 
ters in  one  man,  Odysseus,  and  we  hear  practically  nothing 
of  the  exploits  of  his  men.  Our  modern  conceptions  are 
very  different.  We  are  interested  in  the  whole  group,  the 
men  and  the  women,  too,  and  leaders  concern  us  precisely  in 
so  far  as  they  are  real  leaders,  and  not  solitary  and  exclusive 
doers  of  deeds.  Some  things  which  had  to  be  told  could  not 
be  told  with  the  names  gone  and  therefore  they  appear 
where  they  seemed  obviously  essential  to  the  narrative. 

Assuming  that  the  story  of  the  English  work  will  be 
fully  told  by  some  English  Friend  or  Friends  I  have  only 
incidentally  dealt  with  it,  but  no  readers  of  this  book  can 
miss  the  fact  that  what  they  did  was  a  fundamental  condi- 
tion to  what  we  did.  They  were  both  authors  and  finishers 
of  this  venture  of  faith.  We  can  not  overstate  our  appre- 
ciation of  their  service  and  fellowship.  Our  work  together 
in  this  time  of  agony  has  inaugurated  a  new  era  of  relation- 
ship between  English  and  American  Friends  which  is  pro- 
phetic of  much  for  the  future. 

Some  of  my  readers  may  feel  that  I  have  devoted  too 
much  space  to  the  problems  of  the  military  draft  and  to  the 
experience  of  the  conscientious  objectors  to  war,  instead  of 
going  directly  to  the  central  point  of  interest,  the  work  in 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

the  areas  of  desolation.  The  reason  for  the  order  and  em- 
phasis which  appear  in  my  chapters  is  that  the  perspective 
of  actual  events  as  they  occurred  called  for  this  order  and 
emphasis.  This  book  is  something  more  than  the  story  of 
an  impressive  piece  of  relief  work.  It  is  the  interpretation 
of  a  way  of  life.  The  relief  work  took  on  a  peculiar  form 
and  character  just  because  it  was  the  expression  of  a  definite 
religious  faith  and  sprang  naturally  out  of  an  inner  spirit 
and  attitude  to  life. 

The  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends  and  other  Chris- 
tians of  similar  faith  who,  under  the  compulsion  of  their 
deep-seated  convictions,  could  not  accept  the  methods  of 
war  loved  their  country  with  as  much  devotion  and  fervor 
as  did  any  of  its  citizens.  They  did  not  take  their  unique  ^ 
and  difficult  position  because  they  were  obstructionists. 
They  took  it  because  they  were  inwardly  pledged  to  a  way 
of  life  which,  if  extended  through  the  world,  would  elim- 
inate the  seeds  of  war  and  would  bring  new  and  higher 
forces  into  operation  within  the  fabric  of  society.  They  ^ 
could  not,  therefore,  of  a  sudden  change  the  faith  of  a  life- 
time and  substitute  the  methods  of  war  for  the  slower  but 
not  less  effective  forces  of  love  and  co-operation.  They  felt 
that  for  them  to  surrender  their  ideals  of  life  in  this  crisis 
of  history  would  be  to  prove  recreant  to  the  fundamental 
hopes  of  humanity. 

Most  of  the  officials  with  whom  I  had  frequent  dealing  in 
Washington,  and  many  unofficial  people,  were  convinced 
that  we  who  took  this  position  were  consistent  in  our  course 
and  were  doing  right  when  we  kept  unswervingly  on  the 
path  of  life  which  our  fathers  had  walked  before  us.  Again 
and  again  I  was  told:  ''You  are  doing  what  you  ought  to 
do.  We  need  to  have  in  the  world,  especially  now,  some 
people  who  believe  in  the  conquering  power  of  love  and  who 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

express  in  deeds  the  conviction  that  Christ's  Kingdom  of 
God  is  something  more  than  a  dream  or  an  illusion  to  be 
surrendered  at  every  hard  pinch.  Some  day  we  shall  all 
be  glad  that  you  stood  out,  held  on  and  would  not  yield  to 
the  mighty  appeal  of  the  hour."  This  position,  as  I  have 
said,  was  no  hasty  expedient ;  it  was  as  deep  as  life  itself. 
To  go  back  on  it  was  to  barter  away  the  very  faith  which 
made  life  a  rich  and  precious  thing. 

But  the  one  impossible  course  for  those  of  us  who  held 
this  faith  was  to  refuse  the  call  to  fight  and  at  the  same 
time  to  refuse  all  responsibility  for  the  tragedy,  to  with- 
draw into  some  calm  retreat,  assume  for  ourselves  a  holier 
attainment  than  that  possessed  by  other  Christians  and 
secure  an  easy  safety  purchased  by  superior  piety !  No, 
to  do  that  was  to  lose  the  soul  as  surely  as  though  a  contract 
had  been  signed  with  Mephistopheles.  The  world  tragedy 
was  a  common  tragedy  for  which  we  were  all  in  our  degree  to 
blame  and  the  agony  ol  which  in  some  measure  we  were  all 
bound  to  bear  a  share.  It  was  not  possible  for  one  who  had 
a  real,  living,  throbbing  soul  within  him  to  run  away  into 
some  bomb-proof  shelter  built  by  faith  and  to  wait  in  secur- 
ity until  the  storm  rolled  by.  The  great  Pioneer  who 
marked  out  the  way  of  life  we  wished  to  take  did  quite 
otherwise  when  His  crisis  came.  We  wanted  to  show  our 
faith  in  action  and  to  show  it  in  a  way  that  would  both 
bring  healing  to  the  awful  wounds  of  war  and  at  the  same 
time  take  us  out  of  self  and  selfish  aims  and  carry  us  into 
the  furnace  where  others  were  suffering.  I  have  en- 
deavored to  tell  in  the  following  pages  how  the  door 
was  opened  for  this  type  of  service  and  how  the 
men  who  had  been  confined  in  the  army  camps,  bear- 
ing their  silent  testimony  indeed,  but  unable  to  put 
their  hands  to  any  constructive  task,  were  liberated  by  the 


INTRODUCTION  .  xv 

government  to  join  their  freer  fellows  in  doing  this  work 
of  love  in  Europe.  I  have  a  feeling  that  this  part  of  the 
story  will  have  its  own  interest  and  will  add  to  the  interest 
of  the  work  in  the  Marne,  the  Somme  and  the  Meiise. 

Now  that  all  the  havoc  and  ruin  of  the  world,  with  its 
boundless  tragedy,  is  spread  out  before  us,  as  it  is  for 
those  who  read,  this  other  method  of  life  may  perhaps  not 
look  altogether  foolish  and  irrational.  Now  that  bank- 
ruptcy not  only  in  financial  credits,  but  in  far  more  im- 
portant assets  than  money,  has  become  a  fact  for  much  of 
the  world,  a  new  and  unsuspected  value  may  perhaps  be 
seen  in  the  elemental  faiths  of  the  human  heart — faith  in 
love,  in  truth,  in  fellowship,  in  co-operation,  and  in  the 
spirit  of  forgiveness  and  sacrifice.  Now  that  hunger  and 
disease  and  greed  and  post-war  hate  have  revealed  their 
awful  and  malevolent  sway,  possibly  it  may  be  a  relief  to 
turn  away  from  the  dark  picture  and  to  read  the  simple 
story  of  an  attempt  to  practice  love  both  with  friends  and 
enemies  in  the  midst  of  the  disaster  and  catastrophe. 

In  any  case  here  is  the  story.  It  has  been  rapidly  writ- 
ten, but  it  is  as  truthfully  and  fairly  told  as  I  have  been 
able  to  tell  it.  I  have  had  a  good  deal  of  valuable  help  from 
my  friend  Janet  Payne  Whitney  of  New  York,  especially 
in  the  collection  of  material  which  lay  buried  in  letters 
and  reports  and  minute-books.  What  appears  here  is  only 
a  small  fragment  out  of  a  vastly  greater  mass  of  material, 
but  I  hope  enough  is  given  to  show  the  quality  of  the  ser- 
vice and  the  spirit  of  the  volunteers  who  have  performed 
it,  and  to  indicate  that  they  have 

"Lent  their  hand 
.    To  the  vast  Soul  that  o'er  them  planned." 


A  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 


CHAPTER  I 

PREPARATORY   STEPS 

There  will  be  tens  of  thousands  of  books  written  discuss- 
ing the  causes  of  the  Great  War,  telling  the  story  of  mobili- 
zation, describing  in  detail  the  movements  of  armies  and 
navies  and  air  fleets,  drawing  the  portraits  and  characteris- 
tics of  the  great  actors,  and  recounting  the  harrowing  story 
of  trench  life. 

There  will  be  another  group  of  books  devoted  to  review- 
ing the  immense  work  of  sanitation,  ambulance  service  and 
medical  and  surgical  reconstruction.  The  tragedies  of  the 
sea  and  the  perils  of  raided  cities  will  fill  another  series  of 
volumes.  The  causes  of  the  collapse  of  Russia  and  finally 
of  the  Central  Powers,  the  propaganda  of  ideas,  the  armis- 
tice, the  Paris  Peace  Conference  and  the  Treaties  which 
emerged  from  it  will  furnish  a  small  library  of  books. 

It  cannot  be  out  of  place  to  add  to  this  vast  literature  one 
small  volume  which  will  tell  in  brief  compass  the  story  of 
the  Mission  of  love  and  service  which  members  of  the  Soci- 
ety of  Friends  maintained  and  carried  through  during  the 
critical  years  of  the  war  and  afterwards.  It  will  prove  to 
be,  the  writer  believes,  far  more  than  a  narrative  of  indi- 
vidual service  and  suffering;  far  more,  too,  than  an  apology 
for  the  ancient  historical  position  of  the  Quakers,  It  will, 
perhaps,  turn  out  to  be  a  contribution  of  some  significance 


2  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

toward  the  discovery  of  a  better  way  of  dealing  with  acute 
international  situations,  and  it  may  possibly  make  the  work 
of  mere  peace-makers  seem  worthy  of  the  gratitude  of  men. 
Every  great  war,  of  necessity,  forces  those  who  believe  war 
to  be  incompatible  with  their  interpretation  of  Christianity 
to  investigate  anew  their  position  and  to  re-think  the  basis 
of  their  faith.  The  millstones  of  war  grind  ''exceeding 
small."  There  is  nothing  which  does  not  have  to  experi- 
ence the  pressure  of  these  stem  pulverizers.  Even  the 
ideals  of  the  soul  are  thrown  into  the  all-embracing  hopper 
for  the  grist  of  war,  and  they  do  not  always  come  through 
uncrushed,  unreduced.  In  former  times  Friends  lived  far 
more  apart  and  isolated  from  the  public  affairs  of  the  world 
than  is  the  case  to-day.  They  desired  then  to  be,  and  to 
be  thought,  "a  peculiar  people."  They  welcomed  opportu- 
nities to  shut  themselves  off  from  popular  currents  of 
thought  and  action.  '  They  wished  to  be  individualistic,  to 
nourish  and  cultivate  a  piety  of  their  own  exclusive  type. 
They  cherished  from  generation  to  generation  a  testimony 
in  behalf  of  peace  and  they  rigidly  excluded  from  member- 
ship with  themselves  those  who  violated  the  testimony. 
Through  favorable  provisions  of  the  state  and  federal  gov- 
ernments Friends  in  America  received  from  time  to  time  a 
large  measure  of  exemption  from  the  requirements  of  mili- 
tary service  and  so,  except  in  the  very  sternest  crises,  es- 
caped the  severe  testings  which  their  views  would  otherwise 
have  entailed.  The  Civil  War  brought  the  issue  closer 
home  to  Friends  in  America  than  any  former  war  had  done, 
but  the  sympathy  of  President  Lincoln  was  frequently 
manifested  in  behalf  of  Friends  who  were  suffering  for  the 
sake  of  conscience,  while  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  the  Secretary 
of  War,  did  all  that  lay  in  his  power  to  ease  the  condition 
of  conscientious  Quakers.     In  the  Southern  States  Friends 


PREPARATORY  STEPS  3 

maintained  their  testimony  at  great  cost  in  agony  and  suf- 
fering and  made  their  faith  far  clearer  both  to  themselves 
and  to  others  than  had  been  the  case  for  a  century. 

When  the  Great  War  burst  upon  the  world  in  the  summer 
of  1914  Friends  in  America  were  not  spiritually  prepared 
to  give  an  adequate  interpretation  of  the  ground  and  basis 
of  their  faith,  nor  were  they  clearly  united  upon  a  plan  of 
action  suited  to  and  correspondent  with  their  ideals  of  life. 
For  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  this  body  of 
Christian  people  had  adhered  to  an  interpretation  of  Chris- 
tianity which  called  for  a  way  of  life  the  practice  of  which 
was  utterly  incompatible  with  the  spirit  and  method  of  war. 
The  difficulty  had  been  that  this  ''way  of  life"  was  often 
held  in  a  nominal  and  traditional  fashion  and  was  not 
vitally  and  freshly  thought  out  in  an  up-to-date  manner. 
Then,  again,  most  Friends  had  not  clearly  enough  realized 
that  the  seeds  of  war  lay  thick  and  heavy  in  the  existing 
social,  economic  and  industrial  conditions  of  life,  and  that 
their  way  of  life  ought  to  have  led  them  into  the  spirit  and 
activities  which  would  have  helped  remove  the  occasion  for 
war.  The  strain  came  first  upon  the  Friends  of  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Ireland,  of  whom  there  were  somewhat  more  than 
22,000  members,  though  from  the  first  inception  of  the  con- 
flict the  leaders  of  thought  among  Friends  in  America  real- 
ized that  their  central  faith,  their  way  of  life,  was  now  to 
be  tried  so  as  by  fire. 

The  first  step  which  English  Friends  took  was  marked  by 
real  inspiration.  It  was  the  issuance  of  a  Message,  drafted 
during  the  first  days  of  the  war,  ''To  Men  and  Women  of 
Good-will  in  the  British  Empire."  It  began  with  these  sol- 
emn words:  "We  find  ourselves  to-day  in  the  midst  of 
what  may  prove  to  be  the  fiercest  conflict  in  the  history  of 
the  human  race.     Whatever  may  be  our  view  of  the  processes 


4  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

which  have  led  to  its  inception,  we  have  now  to  face  the  fact 
that  war  is  proceeding  on  a  terrific  scale  and  that  our  own 
country  is  involved  in  it."  The  Message  reaffirmed  the 
basic  belief  of  the  Society  that  ''the  method  of  force  is  no  so- 
lution of  any  question,"  that  "the  fundamental  unity  of 
men  in  the  family  of  God  is  the  one  enduring  reality,"  and 
then  issued  a  call  to  those  ''whose  conscience  forbade  them 
to  take  up  arms"  to  serve  in  other  ways  in  the  great  crisis. 
' ' Our  duty  is  clear, ' '  the  Message  declared,  "to  be  courage- 
ous in  the  cause  of  love  and  in  the  hate  of  hate."  A  fine 
and  lofty  prophetic  note  ran  through  the  entire  document 
which  made  it  a  fresh  and  appealing  interpretation  of  the 
Christian  ideal  and  a  word  of  hope  at  one  of  the  darkest 
moments  of  modern  history.  The  call  to  be  "  courageous  in 
the  cause  of  love"  was  immediately  answered  by  a  host  of 
volunteers  who  were  ready  for  the  many  avenues  of  service 
which  opened  at  once  to  men  and  women  of  good-will. 

The  three  most  notable  forms  of  service  which  the  Eng- 
lish and  Irish  Friends  put  into  operation,  almost  from  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  were  (1)  a  voluntary  ambulance  unit 
under  the  Friends'  Ambulance  Committee:  (2)  an  exten- 
sive system  of  relief  for  refugees  and  other  victims  of  the 
war,  directed  by  the  "War  Victims  Relief  Committee"; 
and  (3)  a  service  of  assistance  to  aliens  and  their  families 
under  the  "Emergency  Committee  for  helping  Aliens." 
A  fourth  form  of  service  developed  later  when  the  Con- 
scription Law  went  into  operation,  which  consisted  of  a 
work  of  help  and  counsel  to  those  who  were  suffering  for 
their  faith  as  conscientious  objectors.  This  work  was 
managed  by  the  "Friends'  Service  Committee." 

American  Friends  were  from  the  first  deeply  interested 
in  all  these  lines  of  service.  As  soon  as  definite  knowledge 
of  the  appalling  conditions  abroatl  became  general  and  when 


PREPARATORY  STEPS  5 

Friends  in  this  country  realize  how  devotedly  their  fellow- 
members  in  Europe  were  engaging  in  missions  of  relief, 
they  began  making  contributions  of  money  in  order  to 
assist  in  financing  these  various  lines  of  activity.  This 
assistance,  which  amounted  to  about  $5,000  a  month,  was 
by  no  means  in  adequate  proportion  to  the  immense  sums 
which  were  being  expended  by  English  Friends,  but  it  at 
least  showed  a  vital  sympathetic  interest.  In  1915  Rufus 
M.  Jones  selected  four  men — two  of  them,  Edward  Rice,  Jr., 
and  Felix  Morley,  recent  graduates  of  Haverford  College, 
and  two  of  them.  Earl  Fowler  and  Howard  Carey,  gradu- 
ates of  Earlham  College — raised  the  money  necessary  to 
cover  their  expenses  for  a  year  of  service  abroad,  and  sent 
them  out  to  join  the  Friends'  Ambulance  Unit  in  which 
they  served  with  much  satisfaction  to  the  Unit  and  to  the 
London  Committee.  This  experience  in  co-operation  with 
English  Friends,  small  though  it  was,  had  a  distinct  in- 
fluence in  shaping  the  larger  future  co-operation.  The 
letters  which  the  four  American  workers  wrote  home,  and 
the  furlough-visit  of  Edward  Rice,  Jr.,  kept  us  keenly  inter- 
ested and  helped  us  to  realize  the  advantages  of  fellowship 
and  co-operation  which  would  result  if  they  were  on  a  larger 
scale. 

After  the  opening  of  1917  it  became  increasingly  appar- 
ent that  America  was  eventually  to  be  drawn  into  the  ever 
expanding  vortex  of  the  war.  Philadelphia  Yearly  Meeting 
(Orthodox)  held  its  annual  gathering  at  the  critical  period 
when  the  decision  of  the  United  States  to  enter  the  war  on 
the  side  of  the  Entente  Allies  was  being  consummated  at 
Washington.^  It  was  an  occasion  of  profound  solemnity. 
An  impressive  letter  was  sent  by  the  Yearly  Meeting  to 

1  PhiUuU'lpliia  Y.  M.  was  liokl  from  the  2()th  to  the  :^()tli  of  [March 
1917  and  War  was  declared  by  the  United  States  April  6th. 


6  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

President  Woodrow  Wilson,  commending  his  efforts  on 
behalf  of  Peace,  expressing  the  attitude  of  ''the  silent 
masses  of  humanity  who  deplore  the  prospect  of  war ' '  and 
urging  upon  Congress  to  consider  "how  vital  to  the  inter- 
ests of  humanity  will  be  the  coming  decision."  The  Rep- 
resentative IMeeting  was  keenly  awake  to  the  needs  of  the 
hour.  It  carefully  watched  over  the  interests  of  its  young 
members  and  in  order  to  be  equipped  for  its  varied  tasks 
it  appointed  a  secretary  who  should  devote  himself  to  the 
work.  William  B.  Harvey  w^as  selected  for  this  important 
service. 

For  many  years  there  had  existed  "a  Peace  Associa- 
tion of  Friends,"  composed  of  members  of  Philadelphia 
Yearly  Meeting  (Orthodox)  but  not  organic  with  the 
Yearly  Meeting  itself.  Its  work  and  aims  were  now  ab- 
sorbed into  the  Yearly  Meeting  and  a  large  Yearly  Meet- 
ing's Committee  was  appointed  to  have  the  care  and 
direction  of  the  Peace  activities  of  this  body.  It  was  a 
weighty  group  of  men  and  women  who  were  keenly  alive 
to  the  critical  issues  of  the  hour,  and  they  took  many 
important  forward  steps  dealing  with  problems  of  peace 
and  war  before  the  Service  Committee  was  organized. 
The  committee  had  already  begun  to  work  in  close  affilia- 
tion with  a  similar  Peace  Committee  of  the  Race  Street 
Yearly  Meeting  (Hicksite). 

Meantime  another  step  had  been  taken  which  proved  to 
be  an  important  preparation  for  future  active  service.  A 
Friends  National  Peace  Conference  was  held  at  Winona 
Lake,  Indiana,  in  July,  1915.  This  Conference  appointed  a 
Continuation  Committee  which  consisted  of  a  small  group  of 
Friends  able  to  speak  and  act  in  some  measure  for  all  Ameri- 
can Friends.  This  National  Committee  occasionally  joined 
with  the  Peace  Committees  of  the  two  Philadelphia  Yearly 


PREPARATORY  STEPS  7 

Meetings  in  formulating  plans,  and  it  issued,  shortly  before 
the  declaration  of  War,  a  Message  from  the  Society  of 
Friends  concerning  the  condition  of  affairs.  This  IMessage 
was  printed  as  an  advertisement  in  many  of  the  leading 
magazines  and  newspapers  of  the  United  States.  It  con- 
tained the  following  important  passage  on  constructive  serv- 
ice :  ''The  alternative  to  war  is  not  inactivity  and  cowardice!  \ 
It  is  the  irresistible  and  constructive  power  of  good-will.'* 
The  Message  proceeded  to  call  for  "the  invention  and 
practice  on  a  gigantic  scale  of  new  methods  of  conciliation 
and  altruistic  service"  and  it  declared  that  "the  present 
intolerable  situation  among  nations  demands  an  unprece- 
dented expression  of  organized  national  good-will."  This 
National  Committee  held  an  important  conference  in  the 
city  of  Washington  and  for  some  months  maintained  a 
National  Friends  Bureau  in  that  city. 

As  soon  as  the  decison  for  w^ar  was  taken  at  Washing- 
ton, Rufus  M.  Jones  and  Dr.  James  A.  Babbitt  proceeded 
to  organize  an  Emergency  Unit  at  Haverford  College 
which  included  practically  the  entire  student  body  and 
a  large  part  of  the  teaching  staff.  A  fund  of  about  $10,000 
was  raised,  the  men  were  supplied  with  clothing  suitable 
for  their  emergenc}^  service,  w^ere  equipped  with  the  neces- 
sary tents,  tools,  and  materials,  were  furnished,  through 
loans  or  gifts  by  friends,  with  automobiles  and  ambulances 
and  entered  strenuously  upon  training  in  a  variety  of  forms 
such  as  w^ould  discipline  and  harden  them  and  prepare  them 
for  almost  any  volunteer  service  abroad  when  the  call 
should  come  to  them.  This  emergency  service  at  Haverford 
proved  to  be  a  distinct  step  in  preparation  for  the  Recon- 
struction Work  which  quickly  succeeded  it.^ 

1  Rufus  M.  Jones  was  Chairman  of  this  Unit  and  Dr.  James  A. 
Babbitt  was  Director  of  it. 


CHAPTER  II 

FORMATION   OF   PLANS 

The  first  stage  in  the  organization  of  a  joint  American 
Friends  Service  Committee  was  taken  April  30th,  1917. 
A  meeting  was  held  in  Young  Friends  Building,  Phila- 
delphia, composed  of  Friends,  representing  Philadelphia 
Yearly  Meeting  (Orthodox),  Friends  General  Conferpnce 
(Hicksite),  and  the  Five  Years  Meeting  which  is  the  cen- 
tral body  of  thirteen  yearly  meetings  of  "Orthodox 
Friends."^  The  primary  object  of  the  meeting  was  to 
consider  the  establishment  of  a  Permanent  National  Head- 
quarters for  the  Society  of  Friends  and  to  formulate  plans 
for  future  service.  It  was  pointed  out  that  young  Friends 
in  all  parts  of  the  country  were  very  eager  to  find  lines  of 
helpful  activity  in  which  they  could  conscientiously  engage, 
at  the  time  when  other  young  men  of  their  age  were  press- 
ing forward  to  volunteer  for  military  and  naval  service. 
The  possibility  of  joining  with  English  Friends  in  Ambu- 
lance and  Relief  Work  was  considered,  as  was  also  the  for- 
mation of  an  American  Friends  Ambulance  Unit.  It  was 
the  unanimous  sense  of  the  group  that  Friends  could  not 
accept  exemption  from  military  service  and  at  the  same 

1  The  following  persons  were  present :  In  the  first  group  named 
above,  Alfred  G.  Scattergood,  Charles  J.  Rhoads,  Stanley  R.  Yarnall, 
Henry  W.  Comfort,  and  Anne  G.  Walton.  In  the  second,  Jesse  H. 
Holmes,  Lucy  Biddle  Lewis,  Arabella  Carter,  and  William  H.  Cocks. 
In  the  third  group,  L.  Hollingsworth  Wood,  Homer  Morris  and  Vin- 
cent D.  Nicholson.  Henry  J.  Cadbury  and  J.  Barnard  Walton  were 
unofficially  in  attendance.     A  temporary  organization  was  effected. 

8 


FORMATION  OF  PLANS  9 

time  do  nothing  to  express  their  positive  faith  and  devotion 
in  the  great  human  crisis.  ^  The  following  minute  was 
adopted:  "We  are  united  in  expressing  our  love  for  our 
country  and  our  desire  to  sevxe  her  loj^ally.  We  offer  our 
services  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  in  any 
constructive  work  in  which  we  can  conscientiously  serve 
humanity. ' ' 

It  was  decided  to  arrange  for  headquarters,  to  appoint 
permanent  officers,  including  an  executive  secretary,  and  to 
enlarge  the  Committee.  Meantime  the  members  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Friends  who  belonged  to  the  Emergency  Unit  at 
Haverford  w^ere  pressing  strongly  for  some  satisfactory 
form  of  constructive  service  into  which  they  could  throw 
their  energies.  After  much  correspondence  with  English 
Friends  it  developed  that  the  difficulties  of  obtaining 
''permits  from  the  War  Office  made  the  service  of  Ameri- 
can volunteers  practically  impossible  in  the  Friends'  Am- 
bulance Unit  and  extremely  limited  in  the  work  of  the 
War  Victims  Committee.  Under  these  circumstances  Dr. 
James  A.  Babbitt  and  Rufus  M.  Jones  went  to  New  York 
to  have  a  conference  with  Eliot  Norton  concerning  the 
possibility  of  forming  a  volunteer  Ambulance  Unit  of 
American  Friends  to  be  affiliated  with  the  Harjes-Norton 
Unit.  A  cable  to  Paris  in  response  to  our  request  revealed 
the  fact  that  all  American  ambulance  work  was  shortly  to 
be  militarized.  That  door  of  service,  therefore,  seemed 
completely  closed.  Just  at  this  time  President  Wilson  was 
reorganizing  the  American  Red  Cross  to  meet  the  great 
emergency.  He  called  Henry  P.  Davison  of  New  York  to 
undertake  the  direction  of  all  foreign  War-Relief  Work, 

1  It  was  supposed  at  this  period  that  the  exemption  chiiise  in  the 
Draft  Law  would  give  Friends  complete  exemption.  We  shall  see 
later  that  it  did  not  do  so. 


10  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

and  at  the  same  time  he  asked  Grayson  Mallet-Prevost  Mur- 
phy to  become  Chief  of  the  American  Red  Cross  in  France. 
Grayson  Murphy  was  a  graduate  of  the  William  Penn 
Charter  School  in  Philadelphia  and  he  had  been  for  two 
years  (1896-1898)  a  student  at  Haverford  College.  He 
had,  in  college,  been  on  intimate  terms  with  Rufus  M. 
Jones  and  the  latter,  upon  hearing  of  his  appointment  wrote 
to  him  at  once  suggesting  that  a  Friends'  Unit  for  Relief 
Work  in  France  might  be  formed,  and  asking  if  he  would 
like  to  take  up  the  matter  in  person.  His  answer  was 
most  cordial  and  encouraging,  indicating  a  real  desire  for 
an  interview.  Rufus  M.  Jones  asked  Alfred  G.  Scatter- 
good,  L.  Hollingsworth  Wood,  Vincent  D.  Nicholson,  and 
Harold  Evans  to  accompany  him  to  Washington  for  the 
conference.  Grayson  Murphy  heartily  welcomed  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  formation  of  a  Quaker  Unit  to  work  in 
co-operation  with  the  civilian  sendee  of  the  American  Red 
Cross  in  France,  and  he  suggested  that  a  small  commission 
of  Friends  be  sent  to  France  to  work  out  the  plans  on  the 
field.  Henry  P.  Davison  had  just  arrived  at  the  Red  Cross 
Headquarters  in  Washington  and  was  beginning  his  great 
work  on  the  day  of  the  Friends'  visit.  Grayson  Murphy 
invited  him  to  join  in  the  conference,  saying  to  him  as  he 
introduced  them:  "I  know  the  Friends  of  old  and  I  can 
guarantee  to  you  that  if  they  promise  to  do  a  piece  of  work 
they  will  do  it,  and  they  will  do  it  well.''  Henry  P.  Davi- 
son fell  in  heartily  with  the  proposal  and  gave  it  his  official 
approval  and  endorsement.  The  little  group  of  Friends  re- 
turned from  Washington  in  great  joy  and  with  high  hopes. 
It  was  the  first  of  many  visits  to  the  capital  for  some  of 
the  party  and  few  journeys  of  the  kind  proved  more 
memorable. 

Grayson  Murphy  followed  up  his  invitation  to  have  a 


FORMATION  OF  PLANS  11 

Friends'  Commission  go  to  France  by  a  request  to  Rufiis 
M.  Jones  to  meet  him  for  further  conference  in  New  York 
City.  The  latter,  accompanied  by  J.  Henry  Scattergood, 
went  to  New  York  where  the  plans  for  the  proposed  work 
were  made  much  more  definite.  We  were  encouraged  to 
make  arrangements  to  train  a  unit  of  a  hundred  men  for 
the  foreign  service,  and  Grayson  Murphy  generously  pro- 
posed that  at  least  two  Friends  should  go  to  France  on 
the  same  steamer  with  him  and  the  other  Red  Cross  Com- 
missioners to  make  the  definite  plans  on  the  field  for  the 
future  service,  for  which  in  the  meantime  the  workers 
would  be  training  and  equipping. 

While  these  matters  were  progressing  the  central  com- 
mittee, which  was  eventually  to  manage  the  work,  was 
gradually  growing  into  definite  form  and  organization. 
This  committee  was  considerably  enlarged  so  as  to  be  fairly 
representative  of  American  Friends,  and  its  name  changed 
to  American  Friends  Service  Committee.  Vincent  D.  Nich- 
olson, a  young  Friend  of  striking  abilities  and  of  deeply 
consecrated  spirit,  was  appointed  executive  secretary,  to 
whom  the  committee  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude.  Rufus  M. 
Jones  was  asked  to  become  chairman  of  the  committee,  which, 
after  much  reflection  and  serious  consideration,  he  con- 
sented to  do,  with  a  deep  sense  of  what  was  involved  in  the 
step.  Charles  F.  Jenkins  accepted  the  heavy  work  of  the 
treasurership  and  Alfred  G.  Scattergood  was  made  vice- 
chairman  and  chairman  of  the  finance  committee.  The 
committee  unanimously  decided  to  adopt  the  work  outlined 
in  conference  with  Grayson  Murphy,  and  to  go  forward 
with  the  plans  for  its  execution  and  development.  J. 
Henry  Scattergood  and  L.  Hollings worth  Wood  were  asked 
to  form  the  Commission  for  France  with  tlio  understanding 
that  if  either  one  of  them  were  unable  to  accept  the  two 


12  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Friends  named  to  go,  in  consultation  with  the  officers  of  the 
committee,  should  appoint  a  substitute.  As  L.  Hollings- 
worth  Wood  found  it  impossible  to  go,  Morris  E.  Leeds 
of  Philadelphia  was  chosen  to  accompany  J.  Henry  Scatter- 
good.  It  was  a  fortunate  selection  and  most  faithfully  and 
wisely  did  they  perform  their  delicate  and  difficult  mission. 
They  were  requested  to  confer  with  English  Friends  and 
to  bring  the  American  service  into  as  close  relation  as  pos- 
sible with  that  being  carried  on  under  the  London  Com- 
mittee. In  that  matter,  too,  they  were  peculiarly  successful, 
as  future  chapters  will  show. 

The  commissioners  sailed  on  La  Touraine  from  New 
York  June  2nd  in  company  with  the  large  Red  Cross 
Commission  and,  though  it  was  a  time  of  great  danger  at 
sea,  they  arrived  at  their  destination  without  mishap. 

The  tentative  budget  proposed  for  the  operations  of  the 
first  year  was  put  at  $110,000  for  the  foreign  work  and 
$5,000  for  home  expenses,  but  this  modest  estimate  was 
very  soon  transcended.  In  response  to  definite  requests 
from  the  London  War  Victims  Committee  it  was  decided  to 
send  a  small  band  of  American  workers  to  France  to  under- 
take service  under  the  English  committee,  and  to  select  a 
group  of  women  to  go  to  Russia  to  engage  in  the  work  at 
Buzuluk  under  the  Russian  section  of  the  same  committee. 
Both  of  these  groups  were  to  be  supported  and  financed  by 
the  American  committee  and  the  workers  were  to  serve 
without  compensation.  George  V.  Downing,  Edith  Coale, 
Douglas  and  Eleanor  Waples,  Ernest  L.  Brown,  Howard  W. 
and  Katherine  W.  Elkinton  were  accepted  for  the  work  in 
France,  and  Lydia  C.  Lewis,  Anna  J.  Haines,  Nancy  Babb, 
Esther  M.  White,  Emilie  C.  Bradbury  and  Amelia  Farb- 
iszewski  were  chosen  for  Russia.     A  little  later  William 


FORMATION  OF  PLANS  13 

M.  and  Mary  Elkinton  Duguid  were  added  to  the  list  of 
American  workers  for  France. 

Even  before  the  Service  Committee  was  established  the 
Young  Friends  Committee  of  Philadelphia  Yearly  fleet- 
ing (Orthodox)  had  been  in  correspondence  with  the  War 
Victims  Committee  of  London  and  had  decided  to  raise 
money  and  send  a  group  of  workers  both  to  France  and 
Russia.  They  had  already  selected  most  of  those  who  made 
up  the  two  above  mentioned  lists  of  volunteers.  This  step 
was  largely  due  to  the  initiative  of  Leah  T.  Cadbury  of 
Haverford,  who  had  given  a  term  of  service  previously  in 
France. 

While  the  two  commissioners  were  on  their  voyage  to 
France  and  were  making  their  preliminary  study  of  the 
possible  fields  of  service  open  to  us  there,  plans  were  being 
developed  on  this  side  for  the  selection  and  training  of 
a  hundred  men.  Rufus  M.  Jones,  LeRoy  Mercer,  Vincent 
D.  Nicholson,  and  Henry  J.  Cadbury  formed  the  original 
committee  to  formulate  the  application  blanks,  to  determine 
upon  qualifications,  and  to  make  the  selection  of  the  first 
hundred  men.  Applications  came  in  thick  and  fast  and 
almost  swamped  the  small  committee.  There  were  many 
complicated  questions  to  settle  and  extremely  little  light 
to  go  by.  No  one  knew  yet  what  the  nature  of  the  work 
abroad  would  eventually  be,  whether  building,  agriculture, 
or  relief.  We  realized  in  a  general  way  that  the  occasion 
would  call  for  physical  endurance,  sterling  moral  character, 
quick  adaptability,  and  readiness  to  serve  with  hands  or 
head  in  a  wide  variety  of  lines.  We  endeavored  as  far 
as  possible  to  have  tlie  group  composed  of  men  who  were 
conscientiously  opposed  to  war,  and  for  that  reason  unable 
to  engage  in  it.     This  problem,  however,  proved  to  be  a 


14  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

very  difficult  one.  Many  of  the  applicants  had  never 
faced  the  question  for  themselves.  They  had  not  thought 
through  the  issues  involved.  They  all  hated  war.  They 
had  no  doubt  at  all  in  their  minds  that  war  was  one  of 
the  things  that  ought  not  to  be  in  this  world  of  ours. 
But  here  it  was,  an  existing  fact.  Whether  they  liked 
it  or  not  it  was  in  full  operation  and  their  own  government 
had  seen  no  way  to  avoid  an  entrance  into  it.  The  situa- 
tion presented  to  them  was  an  unescapable  rivalry  of 
loyalties.  How  far  were  they  under  obligation  to  serve 
their  country  in  a  mission  which  appeared  to  conflict  with 
their  ideals  of  right  and  wrong,  and  how  far  did  the 
unexpected  desperate  world-situation  which  confronted 
them  lay  upon  them  a  call  to  break  with  the  settled  teach- 
ing and  attitude  of  their  type  of  Christianity?  These 
and  many  other  questions  of  a  kindred  sort  rose  and 
recurred  in  every  serious  young  Friend's  mind.  It 
was  obviously  extremely  difficult  for  the  committee  to 
decide  what  was  the  real  state  of  mind  of  the  appli- 
cant, since  in  many  cases  he  did  not  know  himself. 
The  canons  of  physical  fitness  were  easy  to  formulate; 
the  scrutiny  of  the  inward  process  of  the  soul,  was, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  baffling  undertaking.  We  did 
our  best  to  discover  in  these  early  days  when  the  draft 
was  approaching  how  deep-seated  and  how  honest  was 
the  conviction  of  duty  which  led  the  applicant  to  turn 
to  the  sphere  of  service  in  which  we  were  engaged.  The 
decision  was  not  always  right  but  it  was  always  at  least 
very  seriously  made. 

Another  point  of  great  importance  confronted  us.  What 
was  to  be  our  uppermost  aim  in  our  service?  Was  it  to 
be  first  and  foremost  a  service  of  love  to  suffering  France, 
an  expedition  of  relief  for  a  part  of  the  world  which  had 


FORMATION  OF  PLANS  15 

been  brought  to  awful  desolation ;  or  was  it  to  be  primarily 
an  opportunity  for  conscientiously-minded  Friends  to  find 
an  alternative  form  of  service  which  would  relieve  them 
from  the  forced  obligation  of  war?  Were  we  to  con- 
sider further  the  way  in  which  this  service  would  inspire 
and  unify  the  Society  of  Friends  and  arouse  it  to  its  proper 
sense  of  mission  in  the  world-crisis,  or  were  we  rather  to 
think  only  of  what  we  could  do  and  give  to  relieve  misery, 
without  consideration  of  the  reward  of  reaction  upon 
Friends  themselves?  In  selecting  men  should  we  have  in 
view  the  work  to  be  done  abroad  or  the  effect  to  be  accom- 
plished upon  the  person  himself  and  more  especially  upon 
the  wider  circle  to  which  he  belonged  at  home?  These 
questions  could  not  be  kept  out  of  sight  and  they  were  as 
difficult  to  answer  honestly  as  were  the  other  questions  of 
conscience  referred  to  above.  It  was  our  settled  policy  and 
purpose  in  all  sincerity  to  select  men  with  clear  reference 
to  the  service  which  they  were  to  render  abroad.  That  was 
always  in  the  focus  of  our  minds  as  we  toiled  over  the  heaps 
of  letters  and  papers  that  poured  in  upon  us.  We  concluded 
that  only  in  one  way  could  this  piece  of  work  be  great 
and  good,  or  in  the  end  produce  any  lasting  effect,  and 
that  was  by  the  selection  of  the  best  group  of  men  that  was 
available  to  us  to  do  the  work.  In  tha*t  spirit  the  selec- 
tion was  made.  We  kept  learning  wisdom  in  the  process 
of  the  work,  gradually  we  discovered  the  defects  and  inade- 
quacies of  our  methods,  and  little  by  little  our  system  of 
selection  grew  into  better  shape.  It  succeeded,  however, 
even  in  the  first  stages,  in  securing  a  remarkable  band  of  a 
hundred  men  for  France  whose  training  will  be  recounted 
in  the  next  chapter. 

One  of  the  great  good  fortunes  that  came  to  us  almost 
at   the   beginning   and   which   has   lasted   throughout   the 


16  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

whole  period  of  service  was  the  privilege  of  using  the  Friends 
Institute  at  20  South  Twelfth  Street,  Philadelphia,  as 
headquarters  for  the  Service  Committee.  This  came 
through  the  kindness  and  generous  spirit  of  the  board  of 
managers  of  the  Institute.  The  disposal  of  the  rooms  put 
at  our  service  involved  a  decided  sacrifice  and  carried  with 
it  much  inconvenience  for  those  who  had  enjoj^ed  the  com- 
fort and  the  almost  constant  use  of  this  central  meeting- 
place.  It  was  turned  over  to  us  with  much  grace  and 
revealed  how  deeply  Friends  entered  heart  and  soul  into  the 
undertaking.  We  began  on  the  lower  floor,  but  the  room 
was  dark  and  was  soon  far  too  small  for  our  operations. 
We  overflowed  into  adjoining  rooms  and  spaces,  until  we 
were  in  the  way  of  almost  everybody.  Then  we  were  al- 
lowed to  "go  up  higher"  to  the  second  floor,  where  gradu- 
ally most  of  the  space  of  this  floor  became  crowded  with 
desks,  typewriters,  files  and  busy  workers.  Here  one  could 
see  almost  any  day  great  duffel  bags,  rolls  and  other  trav- 
eler's kits,  either  of  debarking  or  returning  workers  and 
always  it  was  a  busy  but  interesting  scene  of  activity. 


CHAPTER  III 


Haverford  College  generously  offered  its  beautiful 
grounds  and  buildings  to  be  used  as  the  summer  head- 
quarters for  organizing  and  training  the  group  of  a 
hundred  men  which,  for  that  reason,  came  to  be  known 
as  ''the  Haverford  Unit."  The  members  of  it,  whose 
names  are  given  in  Appendix  I,  represented  all  sec- 
tions of  the  Society  of  Friends  and  also  included  a 
small  number  of  men  who  were  not  in  membership 
with  Friends  but  who  shared  in  large  measure  the  prin- 
ciples and  ideals  of  the  Friends.  Four  members  of  the 
group  represented  the  Fellowship  of  Reconciliation.  There 
was  only  one  Mennonite  in  the  company,  as  at  this  period 
the  bond  of  fellowship,  which  later  became  close  between 
the  two  religious  bodies,  had  not  yet  been  established.  The 
so-called  smaller  bodies  of  Friends  (Wilburites)  had  not 
yet  become  interested  in  the  plans  which  were  going  for- 
ward, but  the  two  larger  branches  of  Friends  in  America 
(for  want  of  better  names  called  "Orthodox"  and  "Hicks- 
ite")  were  proportionately  represented  in  the  list  of  men 
who  were  selected  to  carry  our  ideals  of  service  into  prac- 
tical execution,  though  among  the  workers  themselves  there 
was  no  thought  of  "branches"  nor  was  there  any  line  of 
separation.  The  seventeenth  of  July  1917  was  set  as  the 
date — a  memorable  date  to  many  of  us — for  assembling  at 
Haverford  to  begin  training.     Barclay  Hall  was  assigned  to 

17 


18  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

the  unit  as  living  quarters.  The  dining  hall  and  kitchen 
were  put  at  the  service  of  the  men.  The  wood-working 
section  of  the  mechanical  engineering  building  was  thrown 
open.  Chase  Hall  was  set  apart  for  classes,  while  the  Col- 
lege Union  was  occupied  for  lectures,  meetings  and  enter- 
tainments. L.  Ralston  Thomas,  Richard  M.  Gummere,  and 
Robert  G.  Brown  were  selected  to  form  the  governing  coun- 
cil, to  manage  and  direct  the  unit  during  its  period  of  train- 
ing, with  the  expectation  that  Dr.  James  A.  Babbitt,  whose 
summer  was  engaged  at  Chautauqua,  would  join  the  unit 
before  the  period  of  training  was  finished  and  go  to  France 
with  it  as  its  director. 

The  brief  time  which  elapsed  between  the  selection  of 
the  men  and  the  date  of  assembling  was  crowded  with  mul- 
titudinous activity  on  the  part  of  the  various  subcom- 
mittees, especially  on  the  part  of  the  executive  secretary 
and  chairman  of  the  general  committee.  Many  journeys  to 
Washington  had  to  be  taken  to  complete  the  arrangements 
with  the  Red  Cross  and  to  secure  light  from  the  War 
Department  upon  the  status  of  the  men  who  were  joining 
our  unit,  and  upon  the  probability  of  their  being  allowed 
to  leave  the  country  for  their  proposed  service.  The 
"  light  *^  that  was  secured  at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings 
was,  however,  never  very  illuminating!  About  all  we 
could  guess  was  that  a  man  of  draft  age  would  be  allowed 
to  leave  the  country  if  he  signed  a  promise  to  return  when 
he  was  "called."  It  was  necessary  to  work  out  in  minute 
detail  the  plan  for  summer  training,  the  system  of  teaching 
French,  the  types  of  occupational  training,  the  list  of  lec- 
tures, the  methods  of  feeding  the  group,  and  a  long  lot  of 
et  ceteras.  All  of  which  things  would  have  been  easy 
enough  for  experts,  but  they  were  by  no  means  easy  prob- 
lems for  the  busy  men  who  had  them  to  solve  and  who 


"THE  HAVERFORD  UNIT"  19 

at  the  same  time  were  wondering  whether  any  concrete 
service  in  France  would  ever  open  and  whether  the  draft 
boards  would  let  us  have  the  men  who  were  preparing  to 
train.  It  was  never  easy  to  sleep  with  peaceful  mind  dur- 
ing those  nights  of  the  interim,  nor  was  it  always  so  even 
after  the  interim  was  over! 

There  was  a  strong  desire  on  the  part  of  many  Friends 
that  women  should  have  a  chance  to  serve  as  well  as  men, 
and  tentative  steps  were  taken  to  prepare  a  group  of  women 
workers  as  soon  as  there  should  be  any  prospect  that  there 
would  be  an  opening  for  their  service.  A  subcommittee 
was  appointed  to  have  charge  of  women 's  work  and  to  make 
selection  of  women  workers.  A  few  nurses  and  social 
workers  were  already  called  for  by  cable  from  the  London 
War  Victims'  Committee,  and  these  were  quickly  supplied 
from  a  long  list  of  willing  applicants.  Sewing  groups  were 
being  formed  during  the  early  summer  in  all  the  communi- 
ties of  Friends  throughout  the  country,  and  these  centers  of 
activity  did  much  to  cultivate  interest  in  all  the  lines  of 
service  and  also  to  stimulate  young  Friends  of  both  sexes 
to  volunteer  for  service.  The  remarkable  output  of  the 
sewing  groups  will  be  dealt  with  in  a  future  chapter. 

In  order  to  arouse  all  young  Friends  to  the  significance 
of  the  crisis  through  which  the  world  was  passing  and  which 
was  bound  to  be  a  critical  epoch  for  American  Friends,  the 
executive  board  of  the  Service  Committee  decided  to  send 
out  Thomas  E.  Jones,  then  secretary  of  the  Young  Friends 
Board  of  the  Five  Years  Meeting,  to  hold  local  conferences 
with  young  Friends  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  to  attend 
the  approaching  Yearly  Meetings,  to  present  the  service 
work  at  the  coming  Cedar  Lake  Conference  of  young 
Friends,  and  to  do  field  work  for  the  committee  between 
July  1st  and  September  20th  at  which  time  he  was  to  go 


20  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

to  Japan.  As  definite  plans  matured,  and  the  knowledge 
of  the  proposed  service  spread  abroad  among  Friends,  the 
response  of  interest  was  immediate.  Without  any  pres- 
sure and  with  little  organized  effort  contributions  of  money 
began  to  flow  into  the  treasury  so  that  the  problem  of 
raising  money  was  one  of  the  least  of  the  problems.  We 
endeavored  to  make  an  arrangement  with  the  Red  Cross 
before  the  ''drive"  for  $100,000,000  began  in  the  summer 
of  1917,  so  that  the  contributions  made  by  Friends  to  this 
''drive"  could  be  set  apart  for  our  work.  It  proved  im- 
possible to  make  this  arrangement  for  the  whole  country, 
though  a  plan  was  formulated  for  the  Philadelphia  district 
by  which  Friendly  subscribers  could  make  their  subscrip- 
tions payable  to  our  treasurer  and  at  the  same  time  have 
them  count  toward  the  Red  Cross  total.  The  plan  was  only 
partly  successful,  though  it  brought  some  goodly  increases 
to  our  funds. 

While  these  plans  and, efforts  were  going  forward  with 
what  seemed  like  promise  and  good  augury  our  commis- 
sioners in  France  were  being  confronted  with  many  diffi- 
culties. The  Red  Cross  commission  to  France  consisted  of 
twenty-one  persons  representing  a  large  number  of  phases 
of  work.  They  obviously  could  not  form  their  plans  quickly 
nor  could  they  decide  any  fundamental  questions  concern- 
ing civilian  relief  until  the  field  of  possible  operation  had 
been  pretty  thoroughly  surveyed  and  the  whole  appalling 
situation  in  which  France  found  itself  after  three  years  of 
desolating  war  was  studied.  Ernest  P.  Bicknell  of  Indiana, 
a  trained  social  expert  who  had  had  much  experience  in 
administering  relief  at  times  of  great  catastrophes,  was  a 
member  of  the  commission.  So,  too,  was  Dr.  John  Van 
Schaick  of  Washington,  who  had  already  had  extensive 
experience  in  dealing  with  war  conditions  in  Belgium  and 


''THE  HAVERFORD  UNIT'*  21 

Holland.  Our  two  Friends  were  given  every  opportunity 
to  co-operate  with  these  two  men  and  with  their  helpers 
in  their  investigation  of  the  conditions  of  devastated  areas 
and  of  refugees.  The  work  of  relief  and  reconstruction 
already  accomplished  by  the  English  Friends  made  a  deep 
impression  on  the  commissioners  who  investigated  it,  both 
Friends  and  non-Friends.  This  type  of  work  seemed  to 
them  a  splendid  model  for  America  to  follow  and  every 
one  w^ho  studied  it  felt  still  further  convinced  that  the 
spirit  in  which  it  was  being  done  might  well  be  taken  as 
an  ideal  to  be  striven  for  by  any  new  band  of  workers. 
Meantime,  however,  the  days  and  weeks  were  passing  and 
no  definite  plan  of  service  for  Friends  could  yet  be  formu- 
lated for  the  hundred  men  who  were  selected.  The  War 
Victims  Committee,  under  existing  conditions,  could  not  use 
many  more  workers,  and  in  any  case,  could  not,  without 
long  delays,  secure  permits  for  the  workers  to  engage  in 
the  service  within  the  most  needy  areas.  The  American 
Red  Cross  was  not  yet  ready  to  offer  any  concrete  service 
in  which  men  composing  the  Haverford  Unit  could  be  used. 
Consequently  our  two  commissioners  felt  compelled  to  in- 
form us  that  no  door  was  yet  open  for  us.  Three  or  four 
daj's  before  the  hundred  men  were  to  arrive  at  Haverford 
a  cable,  dated  July  11th,  was  received  saying:  "Red  Cross 
not  ready  for  workers.  .  .  .  Advise  keeping  men  at  home 
jobs,  studying  French  until  needed."  The  cable  indicated 
that  twenty  persons,  nearly  all  men,  would  be  needed  in 
the  near  future  and  that  a  plan  for  using  more  workers  in 
affiliation  with  English  Friends  was  under  consideration. 
The  message  also  implied  that  all  Red  Cross  work, — even 
the  civilian  work — might  very  likely  be  militarized  in  the 
near  future. 

This  cable  was  a  staggering  piece  of  news  and  gave  us 


22  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

much  serious  thought.  We  decided,  however,  to  go  straight 
on  with  our  original  plans,  to  let  the  hundred  men  come  to 
Haverford  as  already  arranged,  and  to  have  them  ready 
for  whatever  opportunity  might  offer.  A  return  cable 
was  sent  announcing  that  a  hundred  men  had  already  left 
their  homes  and  were  in  training,  and  that  we  were  count- 
ing upon  the  formation  of  plans  in  France  that  would  give 
them  a  future  field  of  service.  Steps  were  taken  at  the  same 
time  to  send  at  once  the  men  and  women  for  whom  openings 
had  been  found  in  connection  with  the  War  Victims  work. 
On  the  evening  of  July  16th  the  men  composing  the  unit 
were  arriving  at  Haverford,  registering  in  the  never-to-be- 
forgotten  improvised  office  in  "North  Barclay"  and  being 
assigned  to  their  quarters.  The  following  general  schedule 
of  training  had  been  adopted: 

5 :45  A.M.  Time  of  rising,  followed  by  ten  minutes 

of  physical  exercise  in  front  of  Bar- 
clay. 

6:30  a.m.  Breakfast,     followed     by     washing     of 

dishes  and  room  work. 

7 :30-  8  :25  a.m.  Talks  by  members  of  the  Council  or  of 
the  Unit. 

8 :30-  9 :25  a.m.  Talks  by  specialists  on  Social  Service, 
sanitation,  hygiene,  conditions  in 
France,  etc. 

9:30-11  :30  a.m.     Study  of  French  under  several  compe- 
tent instructors. 
12 :00     m.  Dinner. 

2 :00-  5  :30  p.m.  Squad  work  in  carpentry,  mason-work, 
agriculture,  road-making,  auto  re- 
pairing, and  other  forms  of  techni- 
cal skill. 


''THE  HAVERFORD  UNIT"  23 

6 :00  P.M.  Supper. 

7:00  p.m.  Devotional  Meeting. 

7:30  p.m.  a    lecture    every    other    night    dealing 

with  the  world  conditions,  with 
special  reference  as  far  as  possible 
to  France  and  the  future  work  of 
the  Unit. 

The  day  was  so  full  that  no  time  was  available  for  news- 
paper reading  and  consequently  one  member  of  the  unit 
was  detailed  to  present  each  evening,  at  the  close  of  the 
devotional  meeting,  a  survey  of  the  news  of  the  day.  Lewis 
S.  Gannett  generally  did  this  and  he  did  it  with  much 
insight  and  thereby  rendered  to  everybody  a  distinctly 
important  service.  One  of  the  happy  features  of  the  train- 
ing time  was  the  publication  of  a  weekly  paper  (begun 
August  14th)  called  L'Equipe,  of  which  Lewis  S.  Gannett 
was  editor.  It  contained  much  amusing  material,  some 
experiments  in  French  composition  and  verse-writing,  and 
considerable  valuable  information.  Four  numbers  of 
L'Eqiiipe  were  issued.  The  devotional  meetings  were  a 
feature  of  the  day  and  from  the  first  an  effort  was  made 
to  fuse  the  whole  undertaking  with  a  deep  religious  spirit. 

The  lectures  in  the  morning  and  evening  were  of  a  very 
high  order.  Most  of  the  speakers  were  experts  and  spoke 
to  the  men  out  of  long  experience  and  brought  real  illum- 
ination to  them.  For  the  most  part  they  gave  their  ser- 
vices and  in  some  cases  made  large  sacrifices  to  assist  us. 
The  French  instruction,  which  was  arranged  and  directed 
by  President  W.  W.  Comfort,  then  just  entering  upon  his 
career  as  President  of  Ilaverford,  was  admirable  through- 
out. The  men,  most  of  whom  were  in  ''the  empty  tablet" 
state  as  to  French,  made  astonishing  progress  and  found 


24  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

themselves  greatly  advanced  by  the  summer's  work.  The 
squad  work,  which  was  divided  into  departments  as  indi- 
cated above,  filled  the  afternoons.  It  was  a  summer  of 
unusual  heat  but  the  men  worked  with  zeal  and  diligence, 
mastering  the  mysteries  of  threshing  machines,  the  stub- 
bornness of  farm  tractors,  and  the  endless  mechanical 
diseases  which  old  "Fords"  and  auto  trucks  are  heir  to. 
The  township  commissioners  gave  us  excellent  opportu- 
nities to  learn  the  art  of  road-making.  The  Haverford  Col- 
lege farmer  found  that  some  of  the  men  already  knew 
nearly  all  there  was  to  know  about  agriculture  but  he  also 
found  that  some  of  them,  like  the  ancient  Ninevites,  did 
not  yet  ''know  their  right  hand  from  their  left"  in  these 
matters.  These  "unskilled  laborers,"  however,  were 
quick  learners  and  made  excellent  progress.  Everybody 
in  turn  worked  at  carpentry  and  a  selected  number,  under 
good  teaching,  learned  how  to  construct  brick  and  stone 
foundations  and  how  to  make  mortar  and  "concrete." 

The  appetites  which  these  afternoon  squads  developed 
were  memorable.  Our  food  was  always  abundant  and  well 
cooked,  but  the  menu  was  not  extensive  nor  marked  by 
great  variety.  The  service  was  performed  by  the  men 
themselves  and  the  dishes  were  washed  by  the  squads  tak- 
ing turns.  The  actual  cooking  was  done  by  a  trained 
employee.  There  was  a  certain  roughness  to  the  fare  but  it 
furnished  the  necessary  fuel  for  the  physical  efforts  and  it 
was  an  appropriate  preparation  for  the  later  experiences 
in  the  French  equipes. 

One  of  our  complicated  problems  concerned  the  cloth- 
ing and  equipment  of  the  men.  At  first  we  merely  took 
over  the  uniforms  which  the  men  in  the  Emergency  Unit 
had  worn.  These  were  cleansed  and  renovated  and  served 
our  unit  well  in  the  period  of  training,  though  they  were 


*'THE  HAVERFORD  UNIT"  25 

far  too  heavy  for  a  Pennsylvania  summer.  Ralston 
Thomas,  already  a  good  deal  of  an  expert,  gave  much  time 
and  thought  to  the  selection  of  a  permanent  outfit  which 
gradually  took  shape  as  our  service  abroad  became  assured. 
Blankets  for  future  service,  camp  beds,  and  all  the  para- 
phernalia for  outdoor  life  and  work  began  to  accumulate 
in  the  Barclay  Hall  rooms.  Into  the  midst  of  our  beehive 
of  activity  suddenly  came  the  immense  fact  of  the  army 
draft  which  selected  out  a  large  group  of  our  men  for  a 
totally  different  type  of  service  than  the  one  for  which  we 
were  busily  preparing.  This  storj^  of  the  draft  and  how 
it  affected  us  must  wait  for  another  chapter. 

Meanwhile,  as  the  summer  went  on,  J.  Henry  Scatter- 
good  and  Morris  B.  Leeds  in  France  were  successfully 
pushing  forward  the  arrangements  for  a  great  field  of  work 
in  union  with  English  Friends  and  in  conjunction  with  the 
American  Red  Cross.  A  letter  written  by  Henry  Scat- 
tergood  from  Paris  July  11th,  the  day  the  above  mentioned 
cable  was  sent,  gives  a  clear  account  of  the  situation  which 
faced  the  two  commissioners  and  the  prospect  at  that  time 
for  an  American  service  in  France.  The  letter  said  in 
part:  ''As  for  reconstruction,  the  problem  is  most  com- 
plicated. It  is  a  fact  that  many  thousands  of  homes  have 
been  destroyed,  sometimes  whole  villages  being  wiped  out. 
It  is  clear  that  rebuilding  in  permanent  form  is  a  task  be- 
yond even  the  $100,000,000  of  the  Red  Cross  if  it  all  were 
to  go  to  houses,  and  it  is  necessarily  beyond  the  scope  of 
temporary  relief  measures.  The  French  Government  re- 
gards the  loss  of  each  individual  as  a  national  loss  to  be 
paid  for  by  the  nation  as  a  whole,  the  damages  to  be  paid 
to  the  individual  sufferers  when  such  damages  can  be  prop- 
erly assessed.  This  question  of  such  assessment  and 
awards  is  now  being  discussed  in  the  French  Parliament. 


26  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

In  some  localities  local  Boards  are  beginning  to  make  assess- 
ments with  the  hope  of  expediting  it.  Evidently  work  of 
a  permanent  character  is  impracticable  on  privately-owned 
property  until  all  these  questions  are  settled,  and  we  are 
told  that  often  owners  do  not  want  any  clearing  done  yet  for 
fear  of  interfering  with  the  proofs  of  their  losses.  Yet  it  is 
evidently  advantageous  to  get  the  people  back  when  and  if 
they  can  find  a  place  to  live  so  that  the  land  can  be  tilled, 
and  so  that  the  overcrowded  conditions  of  other  places  can 
be  relieved.  The  natural  solution  is  the  temporary  hut  that 
the  English  Friends  have  devised  to  serve  for  the  years  until 
permanent  rebuilding  can  be  worked  out.  Yet  even  these 
need  much  preparatory  work  to  be  done  before  they  can  be 
built  or  our  men  can  start  work  on  them.  They  have  to  be 
made  in  sections  in  some  part  of  France  where  the  lumber 
can  be  obtained,  as  for  instance  in  Dole  in  the  Jura.  A  mill 
of  large  dimensions  in  floor  space  and  storage  capacity  (to 
season  lumber)  has  to  be  found  or  built  before  this  work 
can  be  started.  Then  the  houses  have  to  be  shipped  to  the 
War  Zone  before  anything  can  be  done  there,  and  this  may 
take  weeks  or  months.  If  any  great  military  work  is  on, 
civilian  shipments  are  postponed  indefinitely.  The  English 
Friends,  for  instance,  are  only  just  receiving  their  first  20 
houses  to  be  erected  in  the  newly  released  district  in  the 
Somme,  although  they  have  been  waiting  for  many  weeks 
for  them  and  also  for  the  permits  to  go  there.  Our  pre- 
conception of  a  group  of  100  of  our  men  rapidly  arranging 
themselves  among  the  destroyed  villages,  building  the 
houses,  already  at  hand,  in  a  short  time,  and  passing  on  to 
the  next  village  to  repeat  the  operation,  is  utterly  impossible 
of  immediate  execution,  although  some  may  hope  to  work 
to  this  when  once  under  way. ' ' 

In  spite  of  these  difficulties  our  Friends  achieved  the 


''THE  HAVERFORD  UNIT"  27 

signal  success  of  formulating  a  plan  of  work,  admirably 
adapted  to  our  purpose  and  capable  of  constant  adjustment 
to  fit  the  shifting  circumstances  abroad.  The  complete  plan 
of  work  as  outlined  will  be  presented  later ;  it  is  sufficient  to 
say  at  this  point  that  the  reports  by  cable  and  letters  which 
informed  us  that  positive  plans  of  work  were  being  made, 
and  that  the  door  for  service  was  actually  to  open,  gave  us 
the  liveliest  joy  and  brought  immense  inspiration  to  the 
workers  toiling  at  their  tasks  of  preparation.  As  soon  as 
we  found  that  we  were  likely  to  construct  demountable 
houses  in  France,  we  got  a  blue  print  of  the  type  of  house, 
changed  it  from  the  scale  of  meters  to  a  scale  of  feet,  and 
built  a  sample  house  on  a  brick  foundation  which  our  own 
"masons"  laid.  Morris  E.  Leeds  returned  home  in  August 
and  brought  us  much  definite  information  and  aroused  fresh 
inspiration  for  our  daily  work  of  preparation.  After  the 
middle  of  August  Richard  M.  Gummere  felt  compelled  to 
withdraw  from  the  Council  of  Direction  and  L.  HoUings- 
worth  Wood  took  his  place  and  contributed  very  greatly  to 
the  fine  spirit  of  fellowship  which  steadily  increased  as  the 
summer  advanced.  At  the  end  of  August  Dr.  James  A. 
Babbitt  joined  the  Unit  in  person,  took  charge  of  the  final 
physical  examination  of  the  men,  and  took  direction  of  the 
finishing  stages  of  training.  He  undertook  his  work  in  a 
devoted  spirit  and  he  put  earnestness  of  heart  into  all  that 
he  did. 

As  the  six  weeks  of  life  together  at  Haverford  drew  to- 
ward a  close,  those  of  us  who  were  most  deeply  interested  in 
the  success  of  the  venture  knew  that  we  had  a  splendid  band 
of  men  going  forth  to  the  tasks  over  seas,  and,  I  can  say  for 
one,  that  they  had  won  my  love  and  affection  and  confidence. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  WORK   OF  ENGLISH  FRIENDS  AND  THE  PLAN  OF 
COOPERATION   WITH    IT 

Some  time — in  the  near  future,  we  hope — the  story  of 
the  English  Friends'  work  for  relief  in  France  will  be  told 
as  it  deserves  to  be  told.  It  was  launched,  as  has  already 
been  said,  very  soon  after  the  war  began.  The  entrance  of 
the  British  Friends  into  the  field  is  well  described  in  a  few 
paragraphs  by  J.  Thompson  Elliott  of  London,  himself  a 
pioneer  in  their  plans : 

*'As  the  tragedy  unfolded  in  the  first  few  weeks  of  the 
war,  English  Friends  burned  with  the  desire  to  do  some- 
thing— anything — to  relieve  the  anguish  and  misery  which, 
it  was  only  too  clear,  would  exist  on  a  scale  so  appalling  as 
to  constitute  the  supreme  call  of  a  lifetime.  It  is  probable 
that  the  first  Friends  to  get  into  contact  with  any  refugees 
were  those  at  Folkestone,  Kent,  where  streams  of  Belgians 
were  being  landed.  Large  numbers  of  these  were  fed  and 
temporarily  housed  at  Folkestone  Meeting  House,  and  the 
Peace  Committee  of  the  Meeting  for  Sufferings  began  to 
consider  what  service  Friends  might  have  amongst  Belgian 
refugees  in  Holland. 

' '  Simultaneously,  Dr.  Hilda  Clark  had  envisaged  the  need 
for  medicinal  and  nursing  work  among  the  civil  population 
of  stricken  and  invaded  France,  and  with  the  aid  of  T.  Ed- 
mund Harvey,  M.  P.  and  Edith  M.  Pye,  was  striving  hard  to 
find  the  right  channel  through  which  to  move.     Her  con- 

28 


THE  WORK  OF  ExNGLISH  FRIENDS  29 

corn  and  that  of  the  Peace  committee  were  laid  before  the 
Meeting  for  SutTerings  on  the  4th  of  September  1914,  and 
both  were  warmly  endorsed  by  the  meeting,  which  appointed 
a  small  committee  including  William  A.  Albright,  who  sub- 
sequently became  chairman,  to  take  up  the  work  and  make 
known  to  Friends  what  was  being  done,  and  to  appeal  for 
workers  and  money.  The  sum  asked  for  to  begin  with  was 
3000  pounds.  Hilda  Clark  and  T.  Edmund  Harvey  acted 
as  joint  Hon.  Secretaries  and  the  work  was  carried  on  at  8 
Mylne  St.,  Middleton  Square,  London,  E.  C. 

'^  Meantime  another  pioneer  was  taking  action,  and  on  the 
20th  of  September,  less  than  a  fortnight  after  the  Battle  of 
the  Mame,  George  Henry  Mennell,  accompanied  by  his  wife, 
who  is  a  Frenchwoman,  started  for  Paris  armed  with  the 
actual  passport  and  brassard  with  the  red  and  black  star 
carried  by  his  father  Henry  Tuke  ^Mennell  in  1870-71  when 
a  member  of  the  Friends'  War  Victims  Relief  Expedition  in 
the  Franco-Prussian  War." 

T.  Edmund  Harvey  and  Dr.  C.  D.  Holdsworth  went  to 
Holland  the  latter  part  of  September,  1914  to  investigate 
the  condition  of  refugees  there  and  about  the  same  time 
Edith  M.  Pye  went  to  France  to  see  what  could  be  done  by 
Friends  by  way  of  nursing  and  medical  relief.  J.  Edward 
Hodgkin  and  Gulielma  Crosfield  followed  up  the  study  of 
conditions  in  Holland.  T.  Edmund  Harvey  went  to  France 
early  in  October  and  made  preliminary  arrangements  for 
the  beginning  of  a  Quaker  Mission.  This  visit  was  followed 
almost  immediately  by  the  visit  of  the  little  party  of  Friends 
which  included  George  Henry  ^lennell  and  his  wife  and  his 
brother  Edward  Mennell.  Gradually  the  plans  took  shape, 
the  home  committee  was  organized  with  William  A.  Albright 
as  chairman  and  during  the  early  stage  with  Edmund 
Wright  Brooks  and  A.  Ruth  Fry  as  executive  secretaries. 


30  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Edmund  Harvey  went  on  a  second  trip  to  Bordeaux  to 
secure  permissions  for  the  expedition  to  begin  operations 
and  on  November  4th  the  first  installment  of  the  French 
Mission  started  for  its  field  of  service  under  the  leadership 
of  T.  Edmund  Harvey  and  Dr.  Hilda  Clark,  a  grand- 
daughter of  John  Bright.  There  were  twenty-five  in  the 
party.  The  workers  adopted  as  their  brassard  the  famous 
star  of  black  and  red  which  the  Quaker  Relief  workers 
had  worn  in  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  They  were  as- 
signed to  the  district  of  the  Mame  and  soon  selected  Ser- 
maize,  a  dreadfully  devastated  town,  as  the  headquarters  of 
their  operations. 

The  main  part  of  the  English  Friends'  Relief  work  was 
established  in  the  Valley  of  the  upper  Marne,  between  Bar- 
le-Duc  to  the  southeast  and  Chalons-sur-Mame  to  the  north- 
west, the  extreme  line  occupied  by  the  Germans,  Bar-le- 
Duc  was  not  destroyed  at  all,  and  Chalons-sur-Mame  was 
very  little  damaged. 

Two  classes  which  suffered  most  from  conditions,  espec- 
ially in  or  near  the  war-zone,  were  naturally  the  children, 
and  the  expectant  mothers.  A  Maternity  Hospital  was 
established  by  English  Friends  at  Chalons  in  1914,  as  being 
among  the  first  things  to  require  attention.  About  five 
hundred  babies  had  been  bom  there  when  the  American 
Commission  visited  it,  and  care  had  been  exercised  from  the 
hospital  over  released  patients,  and  also  as  far  as  possible 
over  the  welfare  of  all  small  children  within  reach. 

A  Children's  Hospital  was  also  established  at  Bettan- 
court,  in  a  chateau  loaned  by  the  Countess  IMorrillot.  Here 
sick  or  nerve-shattered  children  were  received  for  care  and 
treatment,  as  well  as  a  number  of  others  whose  families 
were  "sticking  to  their  homes"  in  dangerous  places.  ''An 
illustration  of  the  conditions  which  made  this  home  and 


THE  WORK  OF  ENGLISH  FRIENDS  31 

hospital  necessary  is  that  of  a  little  girl  who  was  brought 
there  by  her  mother  with  the  remark  that  she  could  not  keep 
her  at  home  because  she  could  not  make  her  keep  her  gas- 
mask on. ' ' 

The  taking  of  children  away  from  bombarded  districts 
and  placing  them  in  safe  and  healthy  country  places  was 
an  early  concern  to  the  Friends'  Relief.  The  largest  single 
piece  of  work  of  this  kind  was  the  taking  of  the  children 
away  from  Rheims  and  vicinity,  almost  continuously  under 
bombardment,  where  the  7,000  remaining  inhabitants  of 
the  former  120,000,  were  dodging  about  from  cellar  to 
cellar.  The  gratitude  and  relief  of  the  parents  was  very 
great,  and  the  eagerness  of  the  poor  little  nervous  children 
to  go  into  safety  and  to  play  once  more — an  almost  forgotten 
art — was  pathetic.  Not  only  play  did  the  children  long  for, 
but  lessons.  In  many  cases  they  had  had  no  school  since 
the  beginning  of  the  war.  Here  was  another  chance  for 
Friends  to  serve. 

Overcrowding  of  people  in  cellars,  or  in  ill-ventilated 
rooms,  tended  to  induce  tuberculosis.  Friends  started  a 
convalescent  home  at  Samoens,  in  the  Haute-Savoie,  for  in- 
cipient tubercular  patients  from  Paris  and  other  cities,  and 
another,  at  the  time  of  the  visit  of  the  American  Commis- 
sion, had  just  been  opened  at  Entremont. 

District  nursing  centers  had  been  established  at  Chalons, 
Bar-le-Duc,  Troyes,  Sermaize,  Paris  and  other  places.  At 
Sermaize,  also,  there  was  at  this  time  a  small  Friends'  hos- 
pital for  women  and  children  with  a  doctor,  dentist,  and 
several  nurses,  attending  both  out-  and  in-patients. 

Reconstruction  and  agricultural  work  were  progressing. 
Friends  had  adopted  the  plan  of  placing  comparatively  few 
workers  in  each  village,  so  that,  living  for  several  months 
among  the  people,  they  "established  with  them  just  the 


32  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

kind  of  intimate  and  friendly  relationship, ' '  says  a  member 
of  the  American  Commission,  ''which  is  such  an  admirable 
characteristic  of  their  work."  They  believed  that  the  min- 
istration of  personal  and  intimate  friendship  and  good-will 
was  as  important  as  physical  aid  in  helping  these  homeless 
and  bereft  people  to  attack  anew  the  problem  of  living 
with  courage  and  hope. 

In  Sermaize,  one  hundred  and  three  of  the  portable 
wooden  houses — maisons  demontables — of  which  the  parts 
were  made  in  England  and  shipped  over  to  be  put  together 
where  required — had  been  erected  by  the  Friends'  Relief. 
Each  house  was  surmounted  bj^  a  garden,  now  well  under 
cultivation.  No  civilian  who  had  fled  from  his  home  when 
the  Germans  came  was  permitted  to  return  to  his  village  un- 
less he  had  a  place  to  stay.  The  first  thing  to  do,  therefore, 
was  to  provide  a  hut  or  temporary  place  to  live  in  for  the 
people  who  were  sheltering  in  neighboring  cities,  but  were 
eager  to  get  back  to  their  land.  When  the  American  Com- 
mission visited  this  district,  they  found  Friends  engaged 
on  five  villages  northeast  of  Ham,  which  had  been  assigned 
them  by  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  and  starting  at  Tuguy 
by  building  a  hut  for  the  Mayor  so  that  he  could  return. 
He  was  a  large  landowner,  and  could  give  employment  to 
many  of  his  townspeople  as  soon  as  huts  and  tools  were 
provided  for  them.  At  Villers-St.  Christophe,  another  of 
the  five  villages,  the  Mayor  had  already  returned,  and  was 
working  hard  for  the  re-establishment  of  the  village.  In 
this  place  the  Germans  had  been  in  occupation  for  quite  a 
while,  and  before  their  departure  had  cleared  out  all  the 
civilian  population,  and  kept  them  in  a  strange  village,  im- 
prisoned in  a  few  houses,  while  they  wrecked  Villers-St. 
Christophe.  The  first  to  work  her  way  back  was  a  young 
woman,  who  at  once  took  hold  of  what  would  ordinarily 


THE  WORK  OF  ENGLISH  FRIENDS  33 

have  been  the  Ma3^or's  work,  and  managed  things  so  well 
for  the  two  mouths  until  the  aged  Mayor's  return  that  the 
Sous-Prefet  of  the  Department  had  already  sent  materials 
for  building  and  had  erected  a  large  hut  to  provide  shelter 
for  any  villagers  that  might  come  back. 

It  is  not  only  the  homing  instinct  and  old  associations  that 
bring  the  peasants  back  to  the  sites  of  their  ruined  houses ; 
they  have  a  way  of  burying  their  money  in  the  ground — all 
their  little  savings —  and  come  to  hunt  for  it.  A  pathetic 
sight. 

To  realize  some  few  of  the  problems  of  re-starting  agri- 
cultural work  in  a  war  area,  the  following  description  given 
by  one  of  our  commissioners  aids  the  imagination: 

"Our  itinerary  from  Compiegne  took  us  the  first  afternoon  for 
several  miles  along  the  old  fronts,  and  in  addition  to  our  obser- 
vation of  the  damage  done  to  the  towns  of  Servaise,  Ollencourt, 
Tracy-le-Val  and  Bailly,  we  had  a  most  mteresting  opportunity 
to  go  into  the  old  trenches  of  both  armies.  The  amount  of  work 
done  was  prodigious,  in  a  perfect  network  of  trenches  and  com- 
municating trenches,  all  seven  feet  deep  at  the  least.  In  many 
places  elaborate  underground  houses  of  one  room,  two  rooms 
and  sometimes  more  had  been  made.  Their  roofs  were  arched 
with  corrugated  steel  or  with  steel  girders,  over  which  there  were 
several  feet  of  earth.  In  some  cases  the  floors  and  ceilings  were 
of  cement.  In  the  case  of  the  German  dugouts  and  shelters, 
they  were  much  more  elaborate  and  comfortable  than  the  French. 
We  visited  a  group  of  such  shelters  built  of  huge  logs  with  four 
feet  of  earth  over  them  and  the  whole  hidden  in  a  thick  wood 
behind  high  entrenchments.  The  Germans  had  electric  lights  in 
many  places.  They  even  had  a  bowling  alley  and  little  garden 
patches  and  flowers.  So  much  grass  had  already  grown  up 
around  these  old  trenches  that  the  way  is  often  hidden,  and 
great  care  is  needed  in  going  about  because  of  the  danger  of  un- 
exploded  shells  and  grenades.     The  French  are  forcing  German 


34  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

prisoners  to  clean  up  and  take  out  the  logs  and  iron,  etc.,  which 
are  worth  saving,  and  we  saw  much  material  stored  up  which 
had  been  salvaged  in  this  way  from  these  old  trenches. 

"But  where  the  land  has  been  cut  up  by  trenches  and  shelled, 
a  great  deal  of  filling  in  and  levelling  will  have  to  be  done  be- 
fore it  can  be  used  again  for  agricultural  purposes.  We  sup- 
pose these  belts  of  'no  man's  land,'  including  these  trenches  and 
shelled  fields,  will  have  to  be  left  to  the  last  in  any  case.  Vast 
belts  of  barbed  wire  entanglements  also  stretch  across  the  country- 
side in  many  places.  These  are  perhaps  thirty  feet  wide  and  the 
wires  are  supported  on  steel  posts  or  'horses'  about  three  feet 
from  the  ground.  These  belts  are  being  left  for  the  present,  and 
in  some  cases  we  saw  the  crops  growing  close  up  to  both  sides 
of  them." 

Sennaize  was  the  largest  center  of  the  English  Friends 
Relief  Work,  and  had  about  thirty  workers  stationed  there. 
From  this  center  many  of  them  went  out  into  the  surround- 
ing districts  with  seeds,  rabbits,  and  chickens  to  distribute, 
and  with  agricultural  implements  to  lend,  and  in  some  cases 
to  give.  One  hundred  and  fifty  mowing  machines,  forty- 
two  reapers  and  binders,  five  motor  threshing-machines,  and 
five  horse-power  threshing  machines  had  been  loaned  or 
given  to  various  villages  in  this  way  to  be  used  by  the  entire 
community,  or  were  being  taken  out  and  operated  by  Friend 
relief  workers  for  the  cost  of  the  gasoline.  They  also  had 
a  Mogul  tractor  which  pulled  three  plows  and  was  in 
great  demand  during  the  plowing  season.  This  depart- 
ment had  distributed  forty-five  tons  of  potatoes  for  seed,  in 
the  spring  of  1917,  and  would  have  distributed  200  tons, 
for  which  they  had  orders,  if  it  had  not  been  for  delays  due 
to  congested  traffic  and  to  the  fact  that  the  French  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  was  overworked. 

This  gives  some  idea  as  to  need,  and  the  ways  which  were 


THE  WORK  OF  ENGLISH  FRIENDS  35 

already  in  operation  to  meet  the  need  in  France  in  the 
summer  of  1917  when  the  American  Friends'  Service  Com- 
mittee was  preparing  to  come  in  and  help. 

It  is  hard  for  those  who  have  never  lived  in  an  invaded 
country  to  get  a  true  picture  of  the  state  of  France  in  the 
war  zone  at  the  time  our  work  began,  and  harder  still  for 
those  familiar  only  with  American  landscape  and  communi- 
ties to  realize  what  France  required  in  the  way  of  restora- 
tion. J.  Henry  Scattergood,  writing  from  Paris  in  July, 
1917,  describes  the  Mame  region  as  follows : 

"  To  a  very  large  extent  it  is  agriculturaJ,  but  so  far  as  we  saw 
there  is  almost  nothing  that  compares  with  our  American  farms. 
The  land  is  divided  up  into  a  great  number  of  small  pieces — 
half  an  acre  to  one  or  two  acres — which  are  individually  owned, 
and  apparently  never  fenced.  One  travels  through  these  regions 
for  miles  at  a  time  without  seeing  a  house,  although  all  of  the 
land  which  is  not  wooded  is  or  has  been  quite  extensively  farmed. 
The  people's  homes  and  barns  are  gathered  together  in  villages, 
from  which  they  go  out  to  their  farm  operations,  and  to  which 
they  carry  all  their  harvest  crops,  and  in  which  they  keep  all  their 
live-stock.  The  village  street  usually  presents  on  either  side  an 
unbroken  front  of  houses;  to  each  one  of  these  there  is  a  large 
door,  through  which  wagons  loaded  with  hay  can  be  driven. 
The  dwelling  is  at  the  front,  and  is  directly  connected  with 
various  buildings  back  to  a  fair-sized  barn  in  which  hay,  etc.,  is 
stored.  In  this  bam  or  in  the  buildings  between  it  and  the  house 
the  live-stock  is  kept.  The  villages  and  towns  range  from  those 
in  which  there  is  very  little  except  the  homes  of  the  peasant 
farmers  to  very  much  larger  towns  having  a  considerable  in- 
dustrial community  in  addition  to  the  farming  population.  .  .  . 

''From  what  we  can  gather,  by  talking  with  our  English 
Friends  who  have  worked  among  them,  the  peasant  class  here 
is  represented  by  no  similar  class  at  home.  These  small  fanners, 
while    they    are    hard-working   and   live    very    simple   lives,    are 


36  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

thoroughly  self-respecting  and  self-supporting,  and  are  said  to 
have  considerable  savings.  Few,  if  any,  of  the  pauper  class 
exist.  Among  them  family  ties  are  very  strong,  and  unfortunate 
members  of  families  are  helped  by  their  relatives." 

Many  of  the  villages  that  had  come  in  the  direct  range  of 
the  Battle  of  the  Mame  were  nothing  but  shapeless  heaps 
of  rubbish.  The  method  of  destruction,  though  very  ex- 
pensive, was  at  least  thorough.  The  few  inhabitants  who 
crept  back  like  animals  to  their  burrows  could  find  no  shel- 
ter except  in  the  cellars  underground.  There,  as  civilians 
in  the  war-zone,  they  had  to  take  their  chance,  until  some 
foreign  relief  agency  which  had  time  for  the  job  came  and 
looked  them  up  and  saved  them  from  dying  of  starvation 
and  exposure.  The  English  Friends  were  first  in  this  field, 
though  other  organizations  followed  them. 

Some  villages  were  only  partly  destroyed,  and  here  the 
people  naturally  all  crowded  into  the  remaining  houses, 
their  numbers  added  to  by  those  who  fled  from  the  entirely 
ruined  villages.  Problems  of  food  and  clothing,  not  to 
mention  civilized  living,  became  acute  under  these  condi- 
tions. 

With  farm  machinery  broken,  farm-horses  taken  for  mili- 
tary purposes  and  all  the  younger  and  able-bodied  men 
away  in  the  fighting  ranks,  despair  and  apathy  fell  on  the 
naturally  self-helping  peasantry.  They  did  not  see  how  to 
begin  life  again.  Their  whole  world  was  wrecked,  and  they 
did  not  know  where  to  begin  to  re-make  it. 

One  of  the  greatest  gifts  brought  to  them  by  the  Friends 
relief  work  was  Hope.  And  the  physical  expression  of  that 
hope  was  tools  for  labor.  Of  those  who  gave  the  order  for 
the  deliberate  destruction  of  the  tools  of  the  peasants  in 
those  villages  occupied  and  destroyed  by  the  invader,  one 
can  only  say — ''Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  knew  not 


THE  WORK  OF  ENGLISH  FRIENDS  37 

what  they  did."  To  strike  at  the  morale  of  au  eueray 
country  presents  itself  as  legitimate  to  an  imagination 
hardened  by  war  to  ignore  the  individual ;  but  what  man,  if 
he  could  catch  the  vision  for  a  moment,  could  strike  deliber- 
ately at  the  sanity,  the  mental  and  spiritual  balance,  the 
essential  humanity  of  hundreds  of  innocent  fellow- 
creatures  ? 

The  Society  of  Friends,  "thinking  nobly  of  the  soul"  and 
desiring  to  set  spiritual  restoration  in  the  fore-front  of  their 
service,  brought  not  only  clothes  and  food  and  medical  aid, 
but  tools,  and  helpers  who  would  work  cheerily  alongside 
and  start  going  the  work  of  the  revival  of  civilization  in  the 
suddenly  created  desert. 

The  Friends  relief  work  was  organized  under  four  sec- 
tions, though  each  interlocked  with,  and  closely  co-operated 
w^ith  the  others, — Medical,  Relief  work  and  industry.  Recon- 
struction, and  Agriculture.  The  people  they  had  to  help 
were  divided  into  three  classes — those  who  were  living  in 
the  cellars  or  among  the  rubbish  of  their  former  homes  in 
destro3^ed  villages;  the  refugees  who  had  fled  from  these 
villages  to  others  less  destroyed,  or  had  fled  before  the  Ger- 
man advance;  the  repatriated.  These  last  were  people  who 
had  been  caught  behind  the  German  lines  by  the  first  swift 
advance,  or  had  been  captured  and  sent  there  later,  and 
were  being  returned  by  the  Germans  on  account  of  their 
being  too  old  or  too  young  or  too  ill  to  be  of  any  use.  In 
the  summer  of  1917  these  rapatries  were  coming  through 
Switzerland  at   the  rate  of  one  to   two  thousand  a  day. 

Even  with  every  facility,  the  work  would  have  been  hard 
enough  to  handle,  but  Henry  Scattergood  writes  regarding 
the  English  Friends  in  the  Marne : 

"Their  problem  is  beset  with  very  great  dilliculties,  which  must 
be  experienced  to  be  appreciated  at  their  full  value,  but  even 


38  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

a  very  brief  contact  with  it  shows  how  many  hindrances  there  are 
to  1)0  overcome.  Strange  })e()ple  witli  unrainiliar  customs  must 
be  dealt  witli  in  a  forei;^ni  language.  ]^ei-mission  must  be  obtained 
from  the  military  or  other  authorities  for  almost  every  joumey 
and  for  every  chanj2:e  of  residence.  Innumerable  odicials,  high 
and  low,  local  and  at  l^aris,  are  to  be  consulted  about  every  line 
of  work.  Movements  of  materials  and  all  these  other  matters 
must  be  arranged  through  officials  tremendously  overworked  and 
with  resources  overstrained  by  the  war.  Cooperation  has  to  be 
arranged  with  numerous  other  relief  societies,  French  and  foreign, 
and  necessarily  giving  precedence  to  military  movements.  Paci- 
fists and  men  of  an  age  to  fight  wiio  engage  in  civilian  work 
are  regarded  with  suspicion,  and  tiiis  is  a  recurring  cause  of 
lioiil)l((  and  delay.  The  work  has  to  be  done  with  inadequate 
fa(tilities,  often  under  very  crowded  and  uncomfortable  condi- 
tions, and  last  winter,  which  was  unusually  cold,  under  severe 
discomfort  due  to  lack  of  fuel  and  i)0()r  houses.  All  these  dis- 
couragements they  seem  to  have  met  cheerfully,  j^atiently  and 
with  persistent  good  judgment.  They  hnvv  among  them  men  and 
women  of  a  wide  variety  of  training  and  background,  doctors 
and  nurses,  architects,  mechanics,  farmers,  social  workers  and  men 
of  multifarious  business  experience,  as  well  as  younger  people 
recently  out  of  school  and  college.  All  these  seem  perfectly 
willing  to  work  along  lines  where  their  training  may  count,  or 
for  long  stretches  at  humble  and  menial  tasks,  as  occasion  may 
demand.  Everything  they  do  seems  to  be  insi)ired  with  a  com- 
bination of  untiring  good-will  and  practical  wisdom,  which  has 
secured  them  a  firm  place  in  the  affections  of  the  people  whom 
they  serve,  and  the  highest  praise  from  competent  critics  who 
have  studied  their  work.  In  talking  with  us,  as  in  their  printed 
reports,  they  were  very  modest  about  their  accomplishments  and 
em])hasized  mistakes  and  failures  to  be  guarded  against,  but  we 
have  seen  enough  to  know  that  these  must  have  been  small  in 
comparison  with  their  successes.  Out  of  a  group  of  people, 
largely  unknown  to  each  other,  from  this  wide  variety  of  busi- 
ness and  social  experience,  and  of  constantly  changing  individuals, 


THE  WORK  OF  ENGLISH  FRIENDS  39 

they  have  organized  themselves  into  an  effective  society  which 
is  doing  its  work  so  well  that  Dr.  Van  Schaick,  who  has  known 
relief  work  in  many  lands,  said  that  it  was  the  best  that  he  had 
ever  seen." 

Many  of  the  refugees  crowded  back  into  the  larger  towns 
a  little  behind  the  war  zone,  where  they  lived  in  great 
misery  and  squalor,  having  to  pay  from  20  to  50  francs  a 
month  for  a  small  room,  12  by  15  feet,  in  which  three  to 
six  people  were  forced  to  live  together,  slum-fashion,  sleep- 
ing, cooking,  eating,  and  working  in  the  same  place.  The 
wretchedness  of  this  kind  of  life  was  keenly  felt  by  families 
who  had  been  accustomed  to  comfortable  independence. 
Often  they  were  without  the  barest  household  necessaries 
in  their  cramped  quarters,  and  for  clothing  had  only  the 
light  summer  garments  in  which  they  had  made  their  flight. 

The  Friends  distributed  adequate  clothing  and  simple 
furniture  to  them  as  fast  as  possible, — a  bed,  small  stove, 
simple  wardrobe,  and  a  few  other  things.  As  soon  as  these 
people  found  work — which,  on  account  of  the  large  amount 
of  military  work  being  done  in  the  larger  towns,  most  of 
them  were  quickly  able  to  do — they  paid  for  the  furniture 
in  installments.  For  the  old  people,  or  women  who  could 
not  go  out  to  work,  Friends  started  some  simple  industries, 
especially  a  simple  type  of  embroidery,  done  in  bright 
coloured  wools,  designed  by  Margery  Fry  for  women  who 
were  not  already  expert  needlewomen.  This  embroider^' 
** caught  on"  tremendously,  and  the  English  South  Kensing- 
ton Museum  asked  for  specimens  of  it  as  a  sample  of  a  new 
domestic  art  being  started  among  the  French. 

The  work  which  was  undertaken  in  1914  involved  vast 
expenditures  of  money  which  Friends  in  Great  Britain,  with 
some  small  help  from  America,  gave  with  astonishing  lib- 
erality.    The  group  of  workers  which  in  the  summer  of 


40  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

1917  numbered  145,  served  entirely  on  a  volunteer  basis, 
they  were  infused  with  a  wonderful  spirit,  they  were  greatly 
favored  in  the  type  of  their  leaders,  they  had  the  confidence 
of  the  French  authorities  and  the  French  people  and  they 
made,  as  has  been  indicated,  a  profound  impression  upon 
all  who  saw  the  extent  and  quality  of  their  work.  In  this 
inheritance  it  became  the  good  fortune  of  American  Friends 
to  share. 

Tentative  plans  for  a  union  of  our  proposed  work  with 
that  of  English  Friends  were  already  well  under  way  when 
the  cable  and  letter  of  July  11th  were  sent  by  our  two 
commissioners. 

In  a  letter  written  on  that  date,  Morris  Leeds  and  Henry 
Scattergood  said: 

"We  have  had  two  long  conferences  with  the  English  Friends' 
Executive  Committee  [i.e.,  the  Paris  Committee]  for  the  discus- 
sion of  this  subject.  They  surprised  and  pleased  us  by  making 
the  suggestion  that  the  American  Friends  be  taken  into  their 
group  on  exactly  the  same  standing  as  their  own.  They  feel 
that  this  arrangement  will  present  less  difficulties  than  any  less 
thorough-going  method  of  cooperation.  This  does  not  mean 
that  American  and  English  Friends  shall  always  be  mixed  in 
every  enterprise.  It  may  often  happen  that  groups  of  workers 
will  be  chiefly  or  entirely  of  one  or  the  other  nationality  or 
whether  so  made  up  or  made  up  of  an  approximately  equal 
mixture  of  the  two,  the  groups  will  be  represented  in  the  same 
way  on  the  Central  Committee  and  the  work  will  be  coordinated 
by  that  Committee." 

This  was  the  first  proposal  of  the  complete  union  of 
forces.  It  was  a  bold  solution  of  the  problem  but  it  was 
the  only  right  solution  of  it  and  we  cannot  be  too  thankful 
for  the  way  in  which  it  was  both  formulated  and  executed. 
Ernest  P.  Bicknell  and  Dr.  John  Van  Schaick  gave  many 


THE  WORK  OF  ENGLISH  FRIENDS  41 

important  suggestions  and  much  real  help  in  working  out 
the  details  of  the  scheme  of  co-operation  which  of  course 
involved   our   connection   with  the  Red   Cross. 

"The  English  Friends'  work  is  managed  by  an  Executive  Com- 
mittee that  is  comprised  of  either  the  President,  T.  Edmund 
Harvey,  or  his  representative,  of  five  members  elected  at  large  by 
the  workers  in  France  and  of  the  Department  heads.  This  Com- 
mittee meets  once  a  month.  There  is  also  a  General  Committee 
that  meets  once  in  six  months  that  is  considerably  larger  and  is 
an  entirely  elected  body,  the  function  of  which  is  to  discuss 
general  policies.  It  does  not  appear  to  have  any  executive 
powers.  The  American  workers  coming  into  the  work  would  have 
the  same  opportunity  to  vote  for  members  on  these  committees 
and  to  themselves  be  members  of  the  committees  as  the  English 
workers  have. 

We  expect  to  go  to  England  as  soon  as  we  can  make  the 
necessary  arrangements  to  take  this  matter  up  with  the  London 
Committee.  We  should  like  to  know  to  what  extent  you  are 
willing  to  give  us  power  to  conclude  an  arrangement  for  Ameri- 
can Friends  along  these  lines  or  any  other  lines  that  may  seem 
to  us  advisable.  We  should  like  you  to  make  these  powers  as 
broad  as  you  feel  you  can.  The  above  suggestion  is  liable  to  re- 
vision from  a  number  of  quarters  although  tentatively  approved 
by  the  Executive  Committee  here.  This  was  done  at  an  iii formal 
meeting  and  before  they  can  finally  approve  it,  it  has  to  be  an- 
nounced to  the  membership  at  large  and  passed  tentatively  at  a 
regular  meeting  of  the  Executive  Committee.  There  is  of  course 
also  a  very  good  chance  that  it  will  have  to  be  modified  to  meet 
the  views  of  the  Red  Cross  and  a  possibility  that  the  Committee 
in  London  may  make  some  objections  although  this  is  not  ex- 
pected." 

Grayson  Murphy  wrote  a  letter  to  our  commissioners  on 
August  6th,  1917  in  which  he  outlined  the  basis  of  co- 
operation in  harmony  with  the  general  plan  as  above  sug- 


42  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

gested.  The  American  Friends  Service  Committee  was  to 
select,  equip,  transport  and  maintain  at  its  own  expense 
the  personnel  of  the  Friends  Unit.  This  unit  was  to  become 
a  bureau  of  the  Civilian  Department  of  the  Red  Cross  and 
at  the  same  time  was  granted  permission  to  merge  with  the 
English  Friends  to  form  the  Anglo-American  Mission  of  the 
Society  of  Friends.  ''You  would  expect  us,"  the  letter 
says,  ''to  assist  you  as  far  as  possible  in  obtaining  passes 
and  permissions  to  carry  on  your  work,  and  would  also 
advise  us  of  your  needs  in  the  way  of  funds  or  supplies  so 
that  we  might,  as  far  as  possible,  assist  you  in  securing  the 
funds  or  supplies  that  might  be  necessary  for  your  opera- 
tions. We  cannot  of  course  commit  ourselves  as  to  the 
extent  to  which  we  could  assist  your  Unit  in  these  matters  as 
the  amount  of  assistance  we  could  give  would  be  determined 
by  the  extent  of  our  resources  and  by  the  requirements  of 
the  various  lines  of  work  in  which  we  may  be  engaged." 
Major  Murphy  closed  his  letter  with  these  important  words : 
' '  I  am  thoroughly  in  accord  with  your  views  as  explained  to 
me.  I  believe  your  work  can  be  most  effective  and  I  assure 
you  that  it  is  not  only  my  intention  but  my  great  desire  that 
the  American  Red  Cross  organization  here  and  at  home 
should  extend  to  your  work  the  fullest  and  most  sympa- 
thetic co-operation  and  support. ' ' 

The  definite  plan  as  it  finally  took  shape  and  was  adopted 
by  the  Paris  Executive  Committee,  and  was  later  accepted 
by  the  War  Victims  Committee  and  by  the  American  Service 
Committee,  was  as  follows : 

1.  It  is  understood  that  American  Friends  will  work  under  the 
auspices  of  the  American  Red  Cross  Commission,  who  will  be 
asked  to  assign  to  the  Friends*  Unit  in  France  workers  selected 
by  the  American  Friends'  Service  Committee  for  this  purpose 
from  amongst  men  holding  conscientious  objections  to  all  war  and 


THE  WORK  OF  ENGLISH  FRIENDS  43 

women  in  sympathy  with  such  views.  The  Friends'  Field  Com- 
mittee to  be  the  judge  as  to  the  number  of  such  workers  which 
it  can  usefully  emploj^,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  London 
Committee. 

2.  The  American  Red  Cross  Commission  shall  be  invited  to  ap- 
point one  of  their  number  to  attend  meetings  of  the  Friends' 
Field  Committee  in  France. 

3.  American  and  English  Friends  in  France  shall  unite  their 
work  in  one  organization  which  shall  be  called — ^'Missioii  de  la 
Societe  des  AmisJ' 

4.  The  Ameiican  Friends'  Service  Committee  shall  be  invited 
to  send  out  two  responsible  Friends,  a  man  and  a  woman,  who 
shall  be  ultimately  responsible  to  them  and  to  the  American  Red 
Cross  Commission  for  the  welfare  and  conduct  of  American 
Fiiends  sent  to  France.  These  two  Friends  shall  be  membere  of 
the  French  Field  Committee. 

5.  The  work  in  France  shall  be  directed  by  the  French  Field 
Committee,  and  by  the  Friends'  Service  Committee  in  America 
exercised  through  their  representatives  on  the  Field  Committee. 
We  suggest  that  the  London  Committee  might  invite  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  American  Committee  to  join  their  number. 

6.  The  details  of  cooperation  shall  be  reconsidered,  if  it  is  de- 
sired, after  some  months'  work. 

7.  AVe  strongly  urge  our  American  Friends  to  adopt  the  gray 
uniform  which  is  now  so  well  known  to  the  authorities  and  to  tlie 
people  amongst  whom  we  work,  and  which  is  so  definitely  as- 
sociated with  the  non-military  character  of  our  work.  It  is  also 
felt  that  a  marked  distinction  of  uniform  will  seriously  prejudice 
the  unity  of  our  organization. 

I  had  during  this  period  while  plans  were  developing 
abroad  many  personal  interviews  with  Henry  P.  Davison 
and  with  his  subordinate  helpers  in  Washington  who  had 
become  thoroughly  sympathetic  with  our  aims  and  ready 
to  forward  our  purposes  in  every  way  in  their  power.  As 
soon  as  the  definite  plan  was  brought  to  shape  in  Paris  H.  P. 


44  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Davison  heartil}^  accepted  it  and  always  gave  us  his  loyal 
support  in  the  execution  of  it.  His  assistant  Mr.  Egan  and 
his  efficient  secretary  Mr.  Foley  rendered  us  so  many 
services  and  gave  us  so  much  wise  counsel  out  of  their  large 
experience  that  they  deserve  special  mention  in  this  place. 

The  conference  in  London  between  our  two  commissioners 
and  the  War  Victims  Committee  proved  to  be  most  satis- 
factory, London  Friends  showed  much  cordiality  and  the 
mutual  plans  went  forward  along  the  lines  outlined  above. 
The  Red  Cross  officials  both  in  Paris  and  Washington  co- 
operated heartily  in  the  formulation  of  the  plan  of  union 
and  thus,  with  a  display  of  wisdom  and  insight  on  the  part 
of  all  concerned,  the  famous  triangular  ' '  merger, ' '  to  adopt 
an  American  commercial  phrase,  was  finally  arranged. 

The  plan  of  union  enabled  us  from  the  beginning  of  our 
foreign  service  to  have  the  benefit  of  the  long  experience  of 
the  English  workers,  to  enter  into  a  group  that  had  already 
''found  itself"  and  to  start  on  a  far  higher  level  than  could 
have  been  possible  if  we  had  undertaken  to  launch  a  wholly 
new  venture.  The  Red  Cross  officials  saw  the  unusual  ad- 
vantages of  association  with  the  English  work  as  clearly  as 
we  did  and  they  were  eager  to  promote  the  union.  From 
our  point  of  view  the  association  with  the  American  Red 
Cross  was  clearly  essential  to  the  working  success  of  the 
plan.  One  of  the  gravest  difficulties  of  relief  work  in 
France  was  the  difficulty  of  securing  permits  to  go  to  the 
devastated  areas  or  in  fact  to  go  anywhere.  Our  difficulties 
in  this  matter  were  naturally  increased  by  the  fact  that  our 
workers  were  known  to  be  in  the  main  conscientious  ob- 
jectors to  war.  Without  the  confidence  and  the  backing  of 
a  great  efficient  organization,  such  as  the  Red  Cross,  it  was 
not  likely  that  permits  could  be  secured.  The  English 
workers  were  experiencing  more  and  more  delay  and  were 


THE  WORK  OF  ENGLISH  FRIENDS  45 

finding  the  permit-difficulty  an  ever  increasing  one.  Trans- 
portation of  materials,  equipment  and  supplies  was  another 
operation  beset  with  heavy  difficulties.  In  fact  as  the  war 
went  on  and  the  complications  increased  it  became  perfectly 
evident  that  we  could  never  have  shipped  our  large  stock 
of  material  from  America  to  France,  nor  from  Paris  to  the 
areas  of  service,  without  this  close  connection  with  the  Red 
Cross,  which  treated  us  as  a  part  of  itself. 

About  the  time  our  arrangements  for  the  services  of  the 
Haverford  Unit  were  completed  Homer  Folks  was  made 
American  Red  Cross  Director  of  Civil  Affairs  in  France,  so 
that  our  Bureau  came  under  his  direction  and  our  intimate 
relations  with  this  rare  expert  relief  worker  began.  It  was 
one  more  of  the  many  pieces  of  good  fortune  with  which 
we  were  favored. 

The  beautiful  co-operative  spirit  of  the  English  workers 
in  France  is  shown  in  a  minute  adopted  by  the  Paris  Execu- 
tive and  sent  to  our  Philadelphia  Committee.  It  was  as 
follows : 

"It  is  with  the  greatest  pleasure  that  we  have  taken  the  op- 
portunity of  merging  our  work  with  yours.  If  with  three  years 
of  experience  behind  us  we  can  be  of  assistance  to  you,  you  can 
be  of  equal  assistance  to  us  with  your  energy  and  fresh  point  of 
view.  We  can  see  how  this  has  already  been  so,  and  how  it  will 
be  still  more  so  in  the  future. 

"We  hope  that  this  fusion  of  efforts  in  such  truly  Quaker 
service  will  be  a  means  of  binding  Quakers  from  all  the  ends  of 
the  world  still  more  closely  together.  American,  British,  Austra- 
lian and  Canadian  Friends  are  working  out  here  side  by  side  in 
the  service  of  humanity,  a  circumstance  that  must  afford  an  almost 
unique  spectacle  of  spiritual  unity. 

"We  are  sure  that  the  common  work  of  American  and  British 
Friends  for  the  assistance  of  the  stricken  of  a  third  country  will 
help  to  obliterate  the  memory  of  our  past  misunderstandings  and 


46  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

so  point  the  way  to  a  real  brotherhood  of  Nations,  far  transcend- 
ing mere  temporary  alliances  for  the  satisfaction  of  national 
ambitions." 

Thus  I  can  bring  to  an  end  a  very  important  chapter  in 
the  history  of  the  development  of  the  plans  of  the  Friends 
Service  Committee. 


CHAPTER  V 

PROBLEMS   OF    THE   DRAFT 

A  STRENUOUS  effort  was  made  in  Washin^on  to  have  the 
Draft  Law  include  a  provision  of  exemption  for  persons 
who  had  sincere  conscientious  objections  to  military  service. 
The  men  who  drew  up  the  Bill  were  afraid  that  such  a  pro- 
vision would  offer  an  easy  way  of  escape  to  cowards  and 
''slackers."  They  saw  no  way  to  discriminate  between 
the  "sincere"  objector  and  the  spurious  one.  They  felt  a 
certain  amount  of  confidence  in  the  honesty  and  sincerity 
of  the  religious  denominations  which  had  borne  a  long  his- 
toric testimony  against  war  and  whose  members  had  proved 
their  faith  in  days  past  by  patient  suffering  voluntarily  un- 
dergone in  its  support.  The  Government,  therefore,  refused 
to  go  farther  than  to  make  some  provision  for  the  members 
of  religious  denominations  whose  fundamental  principles 
were  opposed  and  were  known  to  be  opposed  to  war.  There 
were  three  well-known  denominations  to  which  the  provi- 
sion applied :  The  Friends,  the  Mennonites  and  the  Brethren 
or  Dunkards,  and  there  were  a  few  other  small  sects  which 
had  a  corresponding  position. 

It  soon  appeared  that  the  provision,  which  had  been  care- 
fully confined  to  members  of  religious  denominations,  did 
not  really  exempt  even  these  persons  from  non-combatant 
military  service.  This  point  first  became  clear  to  us 
through  a  letter  which  Provost  Marshal  General  Crowder 
wrote  to  me  June  28th,  1917.     He  said :  "  1  have  your  letter 

47 


48  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

of  June  25th  in  which  you  ask  whether  members  of  the 
Society  of  Friends  who  desire  to  g-o  to  France  to  engage  in 
reconstruction  work  in  devastated  districts,  can  go  abroad 
before  the  draft  under  the  Selective  Service  Law  and  spec- 
ifically whether  these  persons  will  be  liable  to  draft,  and,  if 
drafted,  whether  they  can  be  granted  exemption  on  the 
basis  of  the  service  in  which  they  may  be  engaged  in  France 
and  whether  their  exemption  can  be  obtained  by  agents  in 
the  United  States."  General  Crowder  in  his  well  known 
direct  way  proceeded  to  inform  us  that  no  person  subject 
to  draft  was  to  be  dealt  with  by  "administrative  action"  in 
Washington  since  the  exclusive  power  to  determine  upon 
exemptions  rested  with  ' '  Exemption  Boards. ' '  He  further 
said  that  any  person  granted  a  permit  to  go  abroad  for  re- 
lief service  must  return  home  at  once  if  selected  by  his 
Board  for  military  service.  And  finally  he  gave  us  this 
item  of  information:  *'It  is  true  that  there  is  a  provision 
in  the  law  for  the  exemption  of  persons  who  are  members 
of  religious  organizations  whose  creed  is  opposed  to  war,  but 
these  persons  are  not  exempted  from  non-combatant  service. 
Whether  the  War  Department  will  decide  that  service  under 
the  direction  of  the  Red  Cross  is  such  non-combatant  service 
as  contemplated  by  law,  I  am  unable  to  say. ' '  The  clause  in 
the  Selective  Service  Law  dealing  with  this  particular  mat- 
ter left  to  the  President  the  decision  of  the  question  as  to 
what  should  constitute  non-combatant  service,  though,  as 
General  Crowder  said,  the  problem  was  practically  in  the 
hands  of  the  War  Department. 

The  day  of  the  Draft  was  of  course  a  memorable  time  and 
every  member  of  the  Unit  at  Haverford  naturally  watched 
the  results  with  the  keenest  interest.  A  large  number  of 
the  Unit  men  were  drawn  and  we  began  at  once  to  handle 
their  cases.     Henry  J.  Cadbury  was  called  in  to  assist  the 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  DRAFT  49 

officers  of  the  service  committee  in  this  work  arising  in  con- 
nection with  the  draft  and  his  services  in  this  connection 
were  very  important.  lie  became  an  expert  upon  the 
delicate  matters  in  his  hands  and  he  gave  an  immense 
amount  of  time  and  patient  work  to  the  affairs  of  the  Unit. 
His  services  not  only  at  this  time  but  also  throughout  the 
following  year  were  of  a  high  order. 

In  all  matters  concerning  those  who  were  subject  to  the 
draft  William  B.  Harvey  was  a  zealous  and  active  worker. 
He  was  appointed  Secretary  of  the  Exemption  Committee 
of  Philadelphia  Representative  meeting  (orthodox),  for 
which  service  he  was  well  fitted.  He  was  possessed  of 
abounding  energy  and  he  proved  himself  to  be  a  warm  and 
sympathetic  friend  to  all  who  were  exposed  to  suffering. 
He  also  did  much  to  bring  Friends  and  Mennonites  into 
closer  contact.  It  was  our  deepest  desire  in  all  this  sphere 
of  work  to  be  thoroughly  consistent  with  the  principles  of 
our  faith.  We  could  not  settle  problems  of  conscience  for 
others  than  ourselves  and  we  did  not  undertake  to  do  so. 
We  were  providing  for  an  extensive  piece  of  civilian  relief 
service  in  which  we  proposed  to  give  a  sphere  of  action  for 
men  who  felt  in  their  heart  of  hearts  that  they  could  not 
engage  in  war  and  who  at  the  same  time  felt  just  as  em- 
phatically that  they  could  not  meet  the  issue  passively  and 
do  nothing  to  manifest  their  courage  and  their  pasitive 
faith  in  the  power  of  love.  It  seemed  to  us  absolutely  right 
to  turn  the  energies  of  young  Friends  into  this  constructive 
work  and  to  give  them  every  possible  opportunity  to  make 
in  the  midst  of  war  and  the  desolations  of  war  a  •ireat 
contribution  of  love.  We  did  not  consider  our  service  a  way 
of  escape  from  military  service  nor  (what  was  more  import- 
ant) did  we  consider  it  a  way  of  escape  from  a  testimony 
of  suffering  to  be  borne  in  military  prisons.     At  this  stage 


50  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

we  assumed,  no  doubt  too  hastily,  that  the  President  and  the 
Exemption  Boards  would  gladly  recognize  that  our  recon- 
struction work  abroad  was  a  voluntary  and  unforced  type 
of  non-combatant  service,  entirely  satisfactory  for  the  ful- 
filment of  the  provisions  of  the  law.  Very  different  ques- 
tions of  policy  and  principle  arose  as  the  meaning  of  the 
draft  provisions  slowly  unfolded,  but  in  the  first  period  our 
course  of  action  seemed  fairly  clear  and  plain. 

We  went,  often  in  little  groups  of  three,  to  talk  over 
with  Secretary  of  War  Baker  the  problems  confronting 
our  men.  These  visits  always  called  for  a  large  amount  of 
patience  and  for  very  quick  action  when  the  moment  of 
opportunity  came.  Secretary  Baker  was  a  much  sought 
man  in  those  critical  days.  His  ante-room  was  crowded 
usually  to  its  utmost  capacity.  He  would  make  a  definite 
appointment  with  us  to  see  him,  perhaps  at  10  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  We  were  sure  to  be  there  on  time.  And  we 
were  also  sure  to  find  that  there  were  many  others  too  who 
had  appointments.  Gradually  we  would  watch  the  group 
of  visitors  thinning  away  and  see  our  turn  approaching, 
when  suddenly  a  delegation  of  senators  would  appear,  or 
some  army  chief  would  come  in,  or  the  French  Ambassador 
would  enter  and  all  our  calculations  would  be  upset.  Occa- 
sionally we  would  make  the  discovery  that  Secretary  Baker 
had  just  been  called  to  a  conference  in  the  State  Department 
or  that  he  had  received  a  visit  through  an  inner  door  from 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  The  slow  hands  of  the  clock 
would  move  round  the  dial  and  we  still  waited  for  our  in- 
terview. At  last,  at  about  one  o  'clock,  the  door  would  open 
and  the  little,  short  secretary,  dynamic  to  his  finger  tips, 
would  appear,  give  us  a  hearty  welcome,  somewhat  vaguely 
answer  our  urgent  queries  and  send  us  away  with  a  hope 
that  before  long  he  could  give  us  some  definite  light  on  the 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  DRAFT  51 

situation.  It  was  on  the  occasion  of  these  visits  that  we 
came  to  know  Dr.  F.  W.  Keppel  who  at  this  time  was  private 
secretary  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  Dr.  Keppel  was  from 
the  first  exceedingly  kind  to  us  and  always  gave  us  generous 
attention  and  as  much  information  and  counsel  as  lay  at 
his  disposal.  He  was  at  a  later  period  Third  Assistant 
Secretary  of  War  and  our  many  relations  with  him  in  this 
position  will  be  told  in  due  time. 

In  order  to  try  every  source  which  could  give  us  any  light 
upon  the  status  of  non-combatant  service,  we  went  to  the 
White  House  one  day  and  through  the  cordial  co-operation 
of  the  President 's  Secretary  sent  in  to  the  President  a  writ- 
ten account  of  our  ideals,  our  plans,  and  our  purposes.  We 
asked  him  to  give  us  as  much  light  as  he  could  upon  the 
important  issues  which  were  involved  in  our  undertaking, 
especially  whether  our  proposed  work  abroad  would  stand 
in  his  mind  as  the  kind  which  he  eventually  intended  to 
recognize  as  ''non-combatant  service."  To  this  communi- 
cation the  President  sent  the  following  interesting  reply : 

The  White  House 

Washington 

August  28,  1917. 
My  dear  Mr.  Jones: 

I  have  received  your  letter  of  August  15th,  with  regard  to  the 
work  of  the  reconstruction  unit  for  relief  and  reconstruction  work 
in  the  devastated  war  zones  in  northern  France. 

The  Secretary  of  War  informs  me  that  there  will  be  no  diffi- 
culty about  the  securing  of  passports  for  members  of  the  unit, 
unless  they  are  of  draft  age  and  included  in  the  first  draft,  the 
rule  being  that  any  man  who  is  not  to  be  called  in  the  first  draft 
may  leave  the  country  upon  the  understanding  that  he  will  re- 
turn should  his  services  be  later  required. 

The  question  as  to  whether  the  work  of  these  reconstruction 


52  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  "WAR  TIME 

units  can  be  designated  as  non-combatant  service  for  conscientious 
objectors  cannot  now  be  determined.  The  varieties  of  con- 
scientious objection  developed  in  the  application  of  the  selective 
conscription  law  have  been  so  numerous  as  to  make  it  necessary 
to  delay  the  establishment  of  a  policy  until  we  can  be  sure  that 
we  have  both  satisfied  the  requirements  of  the  law  and  gone 
just  as  far  as  we  can  justly  go  in  the  recognition  of  the  rights 
of  individual  conscience  in  such  a  matter.  When  the  total  number 
of  persons  interposing  conscientious  objection  to  military  service 
has  been  ascertained,  I  hope  to  be  able  to  work  out  with  the 
Secretary  of  War  a  plan  which  will  give  the  nation  the  benefit 
of  the  service  of  these  men  without  injustice  to  the  great  com- 
pany of  young  men  who  are  free  to  accept  their  country's  call 
to  military  duty. 

In  the  meantime,  I  am  sure  you  will  permit  me  to  express  my 
deep  appreciation  of  the  reconstruction  work  proposed,  and  my 
happiness  that  it  is  being  canned  out  in  association  with  the 
Red  Cross  which  is  already  doing  a  great  work  in  France  to  ex- 
press the  heart  of  America. 

Cordially  yours, 

WooDROw  Wilson. 

As  the  various  "rulings"  v^ere  issued  from  the  office  of 
Provost  Marshal  General  Crowder,  it  became  steadily  more 
clear  that  the  apparent  exemption  provided  by  the  Draft 
Act  for  Friends  did  not  in  fact  secure  them  from  actual 
military  service.  In  view  of  the  increasing  seriousness  of 
the  situation  our  Committee  called  a  conference  of  repre- 
sentative American  Friends,  which  through  a  small  com- 
mittee, drafted  a  document  containing  a  definite  proposal 
which  we  presented  in  person  to  Secretary  Baker.  The 
document  was  as  follows: 

To  Sec.  Newton  D.  Baker, 
Dear  Friend: 
We,    the    undersigned,    are    authorized    by    a    conference    of 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  DRAFT  53 

Friends,   representing   all   sections   of   our   religious    Society  in 

America,  to  submit  this  memorandum  concerning  the  status  of 

Friends  under  the  provision  of  the  Draft  Act,  which  reads  as 
follows : 

"And  nothing  contained  in  this  Act  shall  be  construed  to  re- 
quire or  compel  any  person  to  sei*ve  in  any  of  the  forces  herein 
provided  for,  who  is  found  to  be  a  member  of  any  well  recog- 
nized religious  sect  or  organization  at  present  organized  and 
existing  and  whose  existing  creed  or  principles  forbid  its  members 
to  participate  in  war  in  any  form,  and  whose  religious  convic- 
tions are  against  war  or  participation  therein,  in  accordance  with 
the  creed  or  principles  of  said  religious  organization,  but  no  per- 
son so  exempted  shall  be  exempted  from  service  in  any  capacity 
that  the  President  shall  declare  to  be  non-combatant." 

The  following  official  ruling  of  Provost  Marshal  Gen.  Crowder 
was  issued  August  11th  on  "the  drafting  of  religious  sects." 

"Persons  considered  under  paragraph  *I'  of  section  20  of  the 
Regulations  will  be  drafted,  will  be  forwarded  to  a  mobilization 
camp,  will  make  part  of  the  quota  from  the  state  and  district 
from  whence  they  come,  and  will  be  assigned  to  duty  in  a  capacity 
declared  by  the  President  to  be  non-combatant." 

The  rules  and  regulations  prescribed  by  the  President  for  Local 
and  District  Boards,  issued  June  30th  provides  in  Section  48 
that, 

"From  the  time  so  specified  (i.e.,  date  of  reporting  at  canton- 
ments) each  man  to  whom  such  notice  shall  have  been  mailed  shall 
be  in  military  service  of  the  United  States." 

The  effect  of  these  two  rulings  in  compelling  Friends,  who  have 
been  "called,"  to  become  a  part  of  "the  military  service  of  the 
United  States"  has  created  a  very  grave  situation  for  the  members 
of  our  body. 


54  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Our  objection  to  war  is  fundamentally  religious.  We  are  op- 
posed not  only  to  the  taking  of  human  life  but  we  are  further 
prevented  by  our  religious  principles  from  participation  in 
any  military  system  or  military  service.  It  is  the  evident  purpose 
of  the  above  quoted  provision  of  the  law  to  recognize  the  re- 
ligious principles  of  bodies  such  as  ours  and  to  allow  their 
members  to  render  sei'vice  consistent  with  their  profound  con- 
victions. We  merely  ask  for  an  interpretation  of  the  law  which 
will  give  to  our  people  the  rights  and  privileges  which  are  plainly 
implied  in  the  words  and  spirit  of  the  enactment.  Our  members 
of  all  ages  are  loyally  ready  to  render  a  service  in  this  world 
crisis  commensurate  with  the  tremendous  needs  of  the  time — 
only  we  cannot  be  recreant  to  the  sacred  ideals  of  our  religious 
Society. 

We  therefore  present  a  plan  adequately  supported  by  precedent 
which  offers  a  solution  of  our  mutual  problem.  There  has  been 
formed  a  national  committee,  known  as  the  American  Friends 
Service  Committee,  representing  all  Friends  in  the  United  States, 
for  the  purpose  of  finding  fields  of  service  for  the  members  of 
our  body.  We  respectfully  propose  that  this  Committee  be 
authorized  by  you  to  find  service  of  national  importance  for  all 
Friends  who  have  obtained  certificates  of  discharge  under  the 
Rules  and  Regulations  prescribed  by  the  President.  This  Com- 
mittee pledges  itself  to  find  forms  of  service,  to  be  approved 
by  the  President,  for  all  such  men.  A  course  similar  to  the  one 
here  proposed  has  been  taken  by  the  British  Government  in  the 
present  war.  By  an  arrangement  with  the  War  Department  all 
Friends  are  given  the  privilege  of  accepting  service  under  the 
Friends'  Ambulance  Committee  or  under  the  Friends'  War  Vic- 
tims Relief  Committee  and  thereby  of  being  excused  from  mili- 
tary service.  Our  Government  through  President  Lincoln  made  a 
somewhat  similar  arrangement  during  the  Civil  War  by  which 
Friends  were  allowed  to  do  hospital  and  relief  work  for  freedmen 
under  the  Friends  Committees  as  an  alternative  to  military  serv- 
ice. The  American  Friends  Service  Committee  has  already 
worked  out  plans  for  extensive  reconstruction  work  in  France 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  DRAFT  55 

and  in  other  stricken  countries  and  it  is  now  preparing  to  send 
to  the  Continent  of  Europe  a  trained  body  of  men  known  as 
the  American  Friends  Reconstruction  Unit  of  the  Red  Cross 
No.  1.  This  reconstruction  of  the  desolated  war-zones  is  work 
already  recognized  by  the  President  as  a  part  of  our  national 
obligation  to  Europe  and  would  seem  to  be  suitable  service  for 
men  who  cannot  fight. 

We  can  rapidly  follow  up  this  first  Unit  with  many  similar 
ones,  while  for  those  Friends  who  are  not  fitted  for  this  type 
of  work  we  can  find  many  other  fields  of  service  at  home  or 
abroad,  such  as  Camp  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work,  social  service  in  the 
crowded  areas  where  munition  workers  live,  work  in  the  canteens, 
and  in  many  other  forms  of  constructive  activity. 

With  the  most  sincere  purpose  and  with  the  deepest  loyalty 
we  urge  that  this  or  some  other  way  be  taken  which  shall  ade- 
quately meet  deep-seated  conviction  and  which  shall  enable  us 
to  serve  our  country  and  our  fellow  men  without  violating  our 
consciences  and  our  sacred  faith. 

We  are  respectfully  your  friends. 

The  wheels  moved  very  slowly  in  Washington,  particu- 
larly in  connection  with  matters  which  did  not  vitally  assist 
in  winning  the  war,  and  we  had  to  learn  to  wait  often 
many  months  for  results,  but  results,  sometimes  different 
from  what  we  expected,  did  eventually  come  from  our 
efforts. 

As,  however,  it  became  ''borne  in  upon  us"  that  we  were 
not  likely  to  get  any  decision  from  Washington  in  time  to 
affect  the  members  of  the  Haverford  Unit  who  hoped  {^ 
sail  for  France  by  the  middle  of  September,  we  turned  our 
attention  to  the  immediate  practical  problem  of  getting  per- 
mits from  the  Local  and  District  Exemption  Boards,  so  that 
our  men  could  get  passports  to  leave  the  country  for  their 
service.  Wherever  it  was  possible  to  do  so,  we  had  the 
individual  members  of  the  Unit  transfer  their  case  from 


56  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

their  home  Boards,  scattered  as  they  were  all  over  the 
United  States,  to  Boards  within  easy  reach  of  Philadelphia, 
so  that  we  and  they  could  deal  with  their  problems  in  per- 
son. All  Boards  in  the  country  with  one  exception  granted 
transfers  to  the  men.  Provision  for  such  transfer  had  been 
made  in  the  "rulings"  of  the  Provost  Marshal,  which  ''rul- 
ings" we  studied  as  though  our  life  depended  on  them.  In 
all  these  legal  matters  Vincent  Nicholson,  our  Executive 
Secretary,  was  very  much  at  home  and  gave  indispensable 
help.  The  transfers  and  the  subsequent  transactions  with 
the  Boards  involved  the  filing  of  almost  innumerable  affi- 
davits, all  of  which  I,  as  chairman  of  the  committee,  had  to 
affirm  to  before  a  Notary.  Each  member  filed  with  the 
Local  Board  which  had  the  administration  of  his  case  an 
application  for  permit  to  leave  the  United  States.  The 
application  blank  was  as  follows: 

I, ,  hereby  certify 

that  I  am years  old,  that  I  reside  at 


In  accordance  with  the  compiled  rulings  of  the  Provost  Marshal 
General,  No.  2,  dated  July  30,  1917,  Form  24,  Section  (d),  I 
hereby  respectfully  apply  through  you  for  a  permit  from  the 
District  Board  to  leave  the  United  States.  I  am  a  duly  ap- 
pointed member  of  the  American  Friends  Reconstruction  Unit 
of  the  Red  Cross  as  indicated  by  the  certificate  filed  herewith, 
and  I  desire  to  leave  the  United  States  as  soon  as  possible  for 
reconstruction  work  in  France. 

I  respectfully  ask  that  you  call  me  for  physical  examination 
and  receive  any  claims  for  exemption  or  discharge  which  I  may 
make  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  above-mentioned  ruling 
governing  permits  for  passports. 

Will  you  kindly  forward  this  application  with  the  letter  of  your 
approval  and  the  other  papers  in  my  case  to  the  District  Board, 
calling  its  attention  to  the  statement  of  the  said  ruling  that  "the 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  DRAFT  57 

District  Board will  make  its  decision  with  the  greatest 

possible  expedition." 

The  permit  when  issued  should  be  sent  to  the  applicant  at  his 
above-mentioned  address. 

Signed 

The  Local  Boards  generally  granted  permits  for  all  our 
men  who  were  so  far  down  in  the  Draft  list  that  there  was 
no  likelihood  that  they  would  be  included  in  the  first  Draft. 
They  also  granted  permits  to  men  who  were  rejected  on 
physical  grounds  which  were  often  technical  and  which  did 
not  incapacitate  the  person  for  our  type  of  service.  A  man 
with  an  imperfect  eye  which  made  his  aim  inaccurate  for 
shooting  could  perfectly  well  build  houses  for  French  refu- 
gees. They  further  granted  conscientious  members  of  the 
Society  of  Friends  exemption  from  combatant  service. 
(Form  174.)  They  usually  approved  the  request  of  our 
men  for  permission  to  engage  in  the  Reconstruction  Work. 
The  final  decision,  however,  rested  with  the  District  Boards 
which  alone  were  authorized  to  pass  upon  claims  of  exemp- 
tion on  the  ground  that  the  applicant  was  engaged  in  other 
forms  of  service  *'of  national  importance." 

There  were  at  first  no  definite  ''rulings"  which  unequiv- 
ocally settled  the  question  as  to  what  constituted  "work  of 
national  importance."  Very  large  discretion  was  given  to 
the  District  Boards  in  this  matter.  We  endeavored  to  con- 
vince the  District  Boards,  before  whom  the  cases  of  our  men 
came  for  decision,  that  they  should  be  given  exemptions  and 
permits  on  the  ground  that  they  conld  not  in  any  case  serve 
in  a  military  capacity  and  that  they  could  render  a  genuine 
national  service  by  "expressing,"  in  President  Wilson's 
phrase,  "through  their  work  in  France  the  heart  of  Amer- 
ica." The  members  of  the  Boards  generally  felt  that  this 
was  the  easiest  solution  of  a  difficult  and  complicated  prob- 


58  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

lem,  but  they  were  all  overwhelmed  with  work,  so  busy  that 
they  hardly  had  time  to  eat  or  sleep,  and  of  course  much 
more  concerned  to  fill  up  their  draft  quotas  than  to  decide 
cases  like  these  of  ours.  The  consequence  was  that  the 
decisions  dragged  along  through  weary  weeks  at  just  the 
moment  when  we  wanted  to  book  our  sailings  for  France 
and  get  the  first  Unit  at  its  task.  Only  those  of  us  who 
worked  at  this  job  will  ever  be  in  a  position  to  know  how 
seemingly  insoluble  the  whole  thing  was. 

When  the  time  came  for  the  Unit  to  sail  we  had  received 
favorable  decision  on  all  but  eleven  cases.  These  eleven 
men  had  to  see  their  companions  go  without  them,  though  I 
always  expected,  as  I  told  the  men  then,  to  see  them  follow 
after  a  short  interval  of  patient  waiting  and  discipline.  We 
found  temporary  homes  and  work  for  them  on  the  Westtown 
farm  and  kept  busily  working  on  for  their  permits,  which 
at  last  all  came  through  on  a  memorable  day.  Only  one 
of  them  still  had  '  *  lions ' '  in  his  path.  This  was  Von  Darwin 
Amick  from  Kansas.  The  "Von^'  in  his  name  presented 
what  seemed  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  a  passport.  The 
good  man  was  not  a  German  and  we  had  plenty  of  evidence 
that  when  his  Kansas  parents  named  him  the  **Von"  was 
spelled  Vaughn,  but  the  boy  had  formed  the  habit  of  spell- 
ing it  ''Von"  and  now  it  lay  between  him  and  friendly 
service  in  France.  The  case  involved  a  vast  correspond- 
ence, many  affidavits  and  some  journeys  to  Washington. 
At  length  through  a  personal  visit  to  the  French  Embassy 
we  secured  a  permit  for  our  Kansas  Friend  who  was  en- 
couraged by  the  officials  in  Washington  and  by  us  to  write 
his  name  henceforth  V.  D.  Amick! 

Thus  every  man  of  the  Haverford  hundred  got  passports 
except  the  one  man  whose  Local  Board  in  Indiana  refused 
to  the  last  either  to  transfer  him  or  to  grant  him  a  permit. 


PROBLEMS  OP  THE  DRAFT  59 

This  was  A.  N.  Reynolds,  of  Mooresville.^  We  fortunately 
had  no  intimation  at  this  time  that  far  greater  problems 
than  any  we  were  then  encountering  were  soon  to  arise  in 
connection  with  drafted  Friends  in  all  parts  of  the  country, 
but  that  is  a  later  story  and  must  wait  until  its  turn  comes 
in  a  future  chapter. 

1  Jesse  N".   Griffith  of  Richmond,  Ind.,  was  prevented  from  going 
to  France  by  illness  in  his  family  at  home,  though  he  had  a  passport. 


CHAPTER  VI 

GETTING  UNDER  WAY 

Feeling  that  we  should  need  a  large  equipment  of  tools 
I  made  out  a  list  of  fundamentals  and  took  it  to  H.  P. 
Davison  on  July  23rd  to  see  whether  the  American  Red 
Cross  would  give  us  our  initial  set  of  supplies.  Mr,  Davi- 
son read  the  list,  asked  me  a  few  incisive  questions  with  his 
usual  directness,  then  rang  for  a  stenographer  and  dictated 
the  following  cable  to  Grayson  Murphy  which  was  my  first 
experience  of  expansive  cabling,  regardless  of  the  number 
of  words: 

"Chairman  Jones  of  Haverford,  Pa.,  reports  excellent  progress 
of  unit.  Expecting  one  hundi-ed  men  will  be  in  prime  condition 
to  sail  about  September  first  to  undertake  rehabilitation  work 
along  lines  of  work  now  being  done  by  English  Friends.  He 
suggests  they  should  have  in  France  upon  their  arrival  the  fol- 
lowing : 

Number  Implements 
2        Tractors 
2       Tractor  Plows 
2        Syracuse  No.  278  horse  plows 
1  or  2  (60  tooth)  spike  harrows 

2        Tractor  harrows   (International) 

1  Land  roller 

2  Disc  drills,  Ontario  or  Superior 
2        Reaper  and  binder,  McCormick 

Case  thresher 

Hoes,  rakes,  axes,  shovels,  forks  for  each  man 
60 


GETTING  UNDER  WAY  61 

Spring  tooth  haiTow  (17  Tooth) 

Plowshares  and  other  repairs 
3        Complete  kits  of  carpenter  tools,  hammer,  saw,  hatchet 

for  each  man 
1        Auto  truck  car 
1       Large  car  for  transporting  men 
1        Small  car  for  eiTand  service 

"Furthermore,  at  least  one  hundred  portable  houses  to  be  made 
in  this  country  to  cost  between  four  hundred  and  six  hundred 
dollars.  He  informs  us  that  he  is  working  along  lines  suggested 
by  Scattergood  and  Leeds.  It  is  contemplated  that  unit  can  do 
effective  work  in  getting  out  lumber  from  Jura  regions  thus  en- 
abling them  to  construct  many  temporary  houses  next  spring. 
Please  advise  promptly  whether  program  meets  your  approval. 
If  so  undoubtedly  we  will  proceed  to  adopt  Friends'  suggestion." 

We  soon  found  that  it  was  much  better  to  build  the  porta- 
ble houses  in  France  than  to  buy  them  here  and  transport 
them,  and  we  substituted  the  purchase  of  saw  mill  and 
planing  mill  machinery  for  the  ready  made  houses.  Major 
Murph}^  by  cable  of  July  27th,  heartily  approved  our  equip- 
ment as  specified  and  we  were  authorized  to  go  ahead  with 
the  purchases,  though  eventually  many  changes  were  made 
in  the  details.  The  smaller  implements  were  bought  in 
Philadelphia  and  sent  to  Haverford  to  be  packed,  to  which 
we  added  a  surveyor's  and  a  photographer's  outfit  and  a 
large  supply  of  medical  and  surgical  material.  The  last 
days  at  Haverford  were  occupied  in  making  great  packing 
boxes  with  rope  handles  and  in  packing  the  entire  outfit 
for  the  Unit.  Each  man  was  allowed  to  csivry  300  pounds, 
if  it  did  not  occupy  more  than  20  cubic  feet.  Three  months' 
food  supply  for  the  entire  unit  was  bought  in  Philadelphia, 
and  was  expected  to  be  shipped  simultaneously  wnth  the 
sailing  of  the  men.     Just  at  this  time  came  a  great  slump 


62  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

in  the  efficiency  of  railroad  transportation.  It  became  al- 
most impossible  to  get  anything  to  New  York  or  across  New 
York  after  it  reached  the  city.  "We  resorted  to  motor 
trucks  for  our  most  urgent  material  and  the  night  before 
the  Unit  sailed,  these  unique  boxes  of  supplies  and  vast 
stacks  of  duffel  bags  went  off  at  ten  o'clock  at  night  in  the 
general  direction  of  New  York  with  volunteer  workers  on 
top  of  the  loads  to  guard  them  and  steer  them. 

The  next  morning  (September  4th)  almost  before  light 
the  men  set  out  for  Haverford  station.  There  were  still 
duffel  bags  enough  left  to  fill  a  railroad  car.  We  shifted 
them  from  one  train  to  the  other  through  the  windows  of 
the  cars  in  the  Philadelphia  station  and  then,  with  deep 
emotions  on  both  sides,  the  Unit  set  forth  for  New  York 
leaving  the  rest  of  us  behind.  There  were  many  left-over 
tasks  to  be  finished  after  the  men  were  actually  gone.  Some 
of  the  boxes  which  had  been  sent  to  New  York  by  express 
missed  the  boat.  The  Rochambemi,  went  astray  and  had  to  be 
searched  for  in  the  wilderness  of  concentrated  freight  and 
express  that  characterized  the  New  York  of  those  days. 
The  food  supplies  were  subjected  to  one  delay  after  another. 
We  were  inexperienced  in  the  art  of  shipping  and  we  tried 
to  do  the  impossible.  The  one  consolation  we  had  was  to  see 
how  confused  and  chaotic  were  the  shipping  plans  and 
methods  of  all  the  other  agencies  of  relief,  even  the 
greatest  ones,  and  in  the  light  of  our  early  trials  and  blun- 
ders we  slowly  worked  out  a  good  reliable  system.  Arthur 
H.  Thomas,  of  Haverford,  out  of  his  large  experience,  gave 
us  much  help  in  our  search  for  lost  things  and  in  our  efforts 
to  get  our  food  and  mill  machinery  on  the  steamers,  and  he 
also  gave  important  assistance  in  the  formulation  of  new 
and  better  methods.  We  selected  Arthur  C.  Jackson,  of  the 
Miller  Lock  Co.  to  be  purchasing  agent  for  all  our  future 


GETTING  UNDER  WAY  63 

supplies  and  to  oversee  the  shipping,  to  whose  efficient 
labors  the  Service  Committee  owes  a  large  debt  of  gratitude. 
About  this  time  Samuel  J.  Bunting,  Jr.,  became  assistant  to 
our  Executive  Secretary  and  gave  a  great  variety  of  service 
both  in  the  office  and  by  a  multitude  of  journeys  to  New 
York,  sometimes  in  order  to  forward  shipping,  sometimes 
to  escort  parties  of  workers  bound  for  France.  At  the  same 
time  Rebecca  Carter  of  Germantown  was  appointed  secre- 
tary of  Women's  work  both  at  home  and  abroad.  This  ex- 
tensive work  of  the  women  and  the  part  taken  by  the  secre- 
tary for  this  branch  of  service  will  be  dealt  with  in  a  future 
chapter.  While  we  were  working  out  our  plans  at  home 
and  getting  ready  to  dispatch  the  first  Unit,  J.  Henry  Scat- 
tergood  was  very  busy  completing  the  plans  in  France  for 
the  effective  utilization  of  the  workers  when  they  should 
arrive.  In  conjunction  with  the  English  Friends  he  had 
studied  the  house  building  work  at  Dole  in  the  Jura  and 
had  decided  to  establish  another  center,  like  the  one  at 
Dole,  for  manufacturing  '^demontable"  houses.  After  a 
careful  investigation  of  possible  localities  for  the  new 
"plant,"  a  contract  was  made  with  a  manufacturer  in  the 
interesting  and  charming  village  of  Ornans,  in  the  depart- 
ment of  Doubs,  for  the  use  of  his  factory,  situated  on  the 
banks  of  the  Loue  River.  A  building  which  had  been  for- 
merly used  for  the  manufacture  of  absinthe  was  taken  over 
to  be  used  as  living  headquarters  for  the  men.  The  machin- 
ery for  the  planing  mill  and  some  of  the  saw  mill  machinery 
were  bought  in  America  and  were  among  the  congested 
freight  supplies  in  New  York,  over  which  we  exercised  so 
much  agony.  An  empty  factory  with  no  adequate  machin- 
ery^ to  work  with  in  a  remote  French  village,  did  not  appeal 
to  anybody  and  all  who  were  concerned  worked  almost  fran- 
tically to  push  forward  the  shipping  of  this  needed  material. 


64  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

According  to  the  original  plan  we  expected  the  Haver- 
ford  Unit  to  go  directly  to  Omans  for  their  first  stage  of 
work.  Dr.  Babbitt  was  to  be  their  Director  and  Ralston 
Thomas  was  to  be  his  assistant,  and  we  had  assumed  in  a 
general  way  that  these  men  would  keep  together  and  work 
as  a  unit.  While  they  were  at  sea,  on  their  way  to  France, 
all  the  plans  on  the  other  side  were  recast,  by  the  unex- 
pected opening  for  work  in  the  Somme  section,  i.  e.  in  the 
devastated  area  released  by  the  famous  Hindenburg  re- 
treat of  1917.  This  new  plan  meant  the  division  of  the 
Unit  into  many  small  groups,  each  group  of  Americans 
to  be  merged  with  a  corresponding  group  of  English  work- 
ers, thus  forming  a  small  equipe  for  each  devastated  village. 
Some  of  the  workers  were  detailed  to  go  to  Dole;  some  to 
equip  and  prepare  the  miU  at  Ornans ;  some  to  work  in  the 
Marne  valley  and  some  to  go,  as  indicated  above,  into  the 
Somme.  It  was  arranged  for  Dr.  Babbitt  to  create  and 
manage  an  extensive  hospital  for  civilian  patients  in  the 
Marne  Valley  at  Sermaize.  This  sudden  transformation 
of  all  our  plans  is  only  one  illustration  of  the  immense 
difficulty  which  we  had  of  ever  telling  in  advance  what  our 
future  activities  were  to  be.  Many  times  during  the  two 
years  all  arrangements,  carefully  made,  for  an  existing  sit- 
uation had  to  be  instantly  thrown  aside  and  a  new  start 
made  to  fit  an  unexpected  emergency. 

It  was  never  possible  to  get  a  great  number  of  berths  on 
any  one  French  steamer.  The  largest  group  we  ever  sent 
at  one  time  was  the  famous  Rochambeau  group  with  Dr. 
Babbitt,  which  consisted  of  fifty-one  men  and  three  women. 

Weary  and  travel-worn  after  a  sleepless  night  on  deck, 
passing  through  the  submarine  zone,  and  another  sleepless 
night  in  third  class  railroad  carriages  en  route  from  Bor- 
deaux, fifty-four  members  of  the  American  Friends  Recon- 


GETTING  UNDER  WAY  65 

struction  Unit  No.  1,  tumbled  out  of  the  train  Saturday 
morning,  September  14th,  and  greeted  Paris.  Henry  Scat- 
tergood,  and  half-a-dozen  of  the  English  Friends,  as  well  as 
part  of  a  group  of  thirteen  who  had  arrived  a  week  earlier, 
were  at  the  Quai  d'Orsay  station  to  meet  them.  The  fifty- 
one  men  and  three  women  scattered  to  their  hotels,  to  re- 
gather  in  the  evening  at  the  splendid  new  Red  Cross  Head- 
quarters in  the  old  Auto  Club  in  the  Place  de  la  Concorde. 

Some  of  them  slept  during  the  day ;  all  were  hollow-eyed 
and  tired  when  they  met  at  the  Red  Cross  IIead(iuarters. 
They  came  away  refreshed  and  inspired.  Henry  Scatter- 
good,  the  American  Friends'  Commissioner;  T.  Edmund 
Harvey,  President  of  the  English  work  in  France;  and 
Homer  Folks,  Director  of  the  Division  of  Civil  Affairs  of 
the  Red  Cross,  spoke  so  eloquently  of  the  work  before  them 
that  the  travellers  who  came  with  minds  filled  with  the  diffi- 
culties in  France,  returned  fired  with  the  consecrated  spirit 
of  these  men.  It  is  impossible  to  reflect  the  religious  spirit 
of  that  meeting  in  words,  or  to  report  the  joy  with  which  the 
ship-worn  group  felt  the  spirit  of  the  men  with  whom  they 
were  to  work.  Behind  the  words  here  reported  stood  three 
great,  warm,  human  men. 

''I  am  glad  to  welcome  you  here  in  this  happy  combina- 
tion of  the  American  Red  Cross,  the  English  Friends  and 
our  American  Friends  Reconstruction  Unit,"  said  Henry 
Scattergood,  in  opening  the  meeting.  "We  rejoice  in  this 
international  effort  in  which  representatives  of  England  and 
America  join  to  help  their  sister  nation,  France.  We  owe 
our  privilege  of  being  here  at  all  to  our  rich  inlieritance 
from  our  ancestors  in  England  and  America  who  have 
fought  for  freedom  of  conscience  the  world  over.  .  .  .  We 
are  here  because  we  feel  we  must  do  something,  not  expect- 
ing an  easier  life  than  the  millions  of  men  who  are  following 


66  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

their  light  in  other  ways,  and  we  are  ready  to  do  the  hardest 
and  lowliest  kind  of  work.  It  is  not  that  our  blood  is  any 
less  red  or  our  patriotism  any  less  real,  it  is  that  we  are  con- 
scious that  we  are  servants  of  a  King  who  is  above  all 
nations — the  King  of  Love,  and  that  we  must  live  out  His 
Gospel  of  Love.  It  is  not  for  us  to  talk,  it  is  for  us  to  work, 
and  in  our  work  to  show  the  power  of  good-will  even  in 
these  terrible  times.  We  are  guests  of  France,  a  nation 
which  in  its  hour  of  trial  has  made  itself  admired  and 
loved  throughout  the  world.  We  must  come  prepared,  not 
to  criticise,  not  to  modernize,  not  to  change,  but  to  help 
France  as  she  wants  us  to  help  her,  humbly  and  as  best 
we  can.  We  Friends  have  a  special  responsibility  because 
of  our  views,  and  must  be  careful  strictly  to  follow  all  the 
conditions  under  which  the  work  has  been  permitted  by  the 
authorities.  The  whole  Friends'  expedition  might  be  im- 
perilled by  the  wilful  or  careless  act  of  any  individual 
which  might  lead  to  distrust  by  the  officials,  and  every 
member  is  placed  upon  his  sense  of  honor  for  the  highest 
standards  of  conduct.  I  can  hope  for  nothing  better  than 
that  we  should  rise  to  the  level  of  service  of  the  English 
Friends  with  whom  we  are  now  merged,  who  have  under- 
taken the  work  in  a  deep  religious  spirit.  Our  privilege  is 
to  unite  the  experience  and  standing  of  the  English  Friends 
with  the  enthusiasm  and  personnel  of  the  American  Friends 
and  the  influence  and  backing  of  the  Red  Cross.  Won- 
derful possibilities  open  before  us,  the  limits  to  which  are 
set  simply  by  what  we  ourselves  make  of  them." 

T.  Edmund  Harvey  was  introduced  by  Henry  Scatter- 
good  as  "a  man  whose  knowledge  of  French  life,  language 
and  manners  made  possible  that  confidence  on  the  part  of 
French  officials  upon  which  the  whole  work  has  been  built 
up ;  whose  ideals  and  whose  life  of  love  have  come  from  liv- 


GETTING  UNDER  WAY  67 

ing  very  close  to  his  Master;  whose  strength  is  in  gentleness, 
whose  character  has  molded  the  spirit  of  all  the  workers; 
whose  presence  is  an  inspiration,  and  who  is  beloved  by  all 
who  know  him." 

''We  have  been  looking  forward  to  this  influx  of  new 
life,"  said  T.  E.  Harvey,  ''and  to  the  Red  Cross  making  it 
possible  for  you  to  work  along  with  us,  with  their  guidance 
and  help.  The  splendid  motto  of  the  Red  Cross,  'Inter- 
Arma  Caritas,'  stands  for  the  constructive  element,  build- 
ing up,  conserving,  re-creating,  in  the  midst  of  war.  It  is 
a  great  thing  to  try  to  live  up  to  that  motto  every  day.  By 
the  very  nature  of  the  trust  imposed  upon  us,  we  cannot 
speak  as  we  might  in  times  of  peace  of  some  aspects  of  our 
faith,  but  we  can  in  our  work  demonstrate  some  aspects 
of  humanity  and  brotherhood,  lessen  a  little  the  terrible 
bitterness  of  war,  and  bring  something  of  the  spirit  of  com- 
radeship and  love  into  lives  bruised  and  battered  by  the 
wrong  that  has  been  done.  We  have  tried  to  make  the 
ideals  of  service  real  in  our  work.  We  are  all  comrades 
and  brothers  working  together,  very  democratically  organ- 
ized, ready — even  men  used  to  positions  of  responsibility — 
to  accept  in  the  spirit  of  comradeship  humble  duties  else- 
where called  menial  and  lowly,  but  which  have,  rightly  seen, 
a  divine  meaning.  You  will  carry  with  you  the  honor 
of  the  Quaker  name  and  of  the  American  Red  Cross,  and 
you  will  go  as  representatives  of  America  into  districts 
where  no  American  has  ever  been  seen.  You  will  go  as 
representatives  of  a  vision,  of  a  way  of  life.  I  am 
sure  that  you  will  every  one  be  worthy  of  the  call  that 
comes  to  you  from  the  need  of  France  and  the  need  of  hu- 
manity. ' ' 

It  was  a  rare  tribute  which  Homer  Folks,  the  Red  Cross 
official  in  charge  of  all  American  civilian  relief  work  in 


68  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

France,  paid  to  the  English  Friends.  **The  Red  Cross 
looks  on  the  Society  of  Friends  as  in  a  sense  its  expert 
leaders, ' '  he  declared.  ' '  There  is  no  group  of  people  from 
whom  we  have  learned  so  much,  or  from  whom  we  expect 
to  learn  so  much,  as  the  Friends."  Then  he  added  a  piece 
of  advice.  *' Leave  behind  on  the  boat,*'  he  said,  "all  par- 
ticular recognition  of  what  you  represented  at  home,  and 
go  about  it  simply  as  work  to  be  done.  You  derive  your 
impulse  to  this  work  from  your  very  beautiful  faith.  The 
first  thing  to  learn  is  to  be  tremendously  tolerant  and  re- 
member that  the  people  you  will  help  have  a  very  different 
religion  and  draw  from  it  certain  very  different  conclu- 
sions. You  will  find,  too,  some  to  whom  politics  and  religion 
are  the  same  thing,  but  who  are  animated  by  as  deep  and 
genuine  an  interest  in  human  welfare.  This  is  the  most 
tremendously  fascinating,  stimulating,  developing,  oppor- 
tunity human  beings  were  ever  called  on  to  meet,  and  it  can 
be  met  only  in  a  simple-minded  human  way  without  any  tags 
or  hyphens." 

For  the  members  of  the  Unit  Dr.  Babbitt  replied,  *'We 
come  absolutely  ready  to  do  any  service  of  any  kind  which 
may  be  assigned  to  us. ' ' 

After  an  intermission  for  coffee  and  cakes — the  members 
of  the  Unit  were  astounded  by  the  abundance  of  good  food 
in  France — Margery  Fry,  of  the  Social  Service  Department, 
Edward  G.  West,  of  the  Agricultural  Department,  and  Wil- 
frid Shewell,  Secretary  of  the  English  Friends'  work  in 
France,  explained  a  series  of  stereopticon  pictures  of  the 
work  in  the  Marne  district. 

Besides  giving  the  incoming  band  of  workers  this  royal 
welcome  which  touched  everybody's  heart,  the  tried  and 
true  English  workers  gave  them  the  following  written  mes- 
sage of  good- will: 


GETTING  UNDER  WAY  69 

"We,  the  English  members  of  the  Friends  War  Victims  Re- 
lief Expedition  in  France,  send  a  word  of  warm  welcome  to  the 
American  Friends  who  have  come  to  share  our  work  with  us. 
It  is  with  the  greatest  pleasure  that  we  greet  those,  who,  sepa- 
rated from  us  by  such  great  distance,  share  with  us  the  same 
ideals  and  aspirations.  We  rejoice  in  this  opportunity  for  a 
united  Quaker  effort  in  the  service  of  humanity.  We  invite  you 
gladly  to  join  us  in  our  efforts  and  hopes,  successes  and  failures. 

"It  may  be  that  some  of  you  will  be  discouraged  at  finding 
yourselves  located,  for  a  time  at  any  rate,  in  a  district  which 
shows  no  signs  of  the  great  struggle,  and  that  you  will  long  to  be 
placed  in  more  direct  contact  with  those  whose  sufferings  are 
more  evident.  It  may  be  your  lot  to  do  work  which  is  in  itself 
monotonous  and  uninteresting,  as  indeed  has  been  the  case  with 
many  of  us  who  have  preceded  you.  We  hope  that  you  may  see, 
as  we  have  seen,  that  it  matters  little  what  our  particular  work 
may  be,  so  long  as  we  help  forward  the  cause  of  international 
good  fellowship,  and  the  ideal  of  constructive  service  which  we 
all  have  at  heart.  The  dullness  of  the  work  is  part  of  the  sacri- 
fice which  is  entailed  in  the  service  we  wdsh  to  render  and  in  the 
witness  we  would  make  to  our  faith. 

"In  the  districts  devastated  by  the  war  you  may  be  disheart- 
ened by  the  immense  mass  of  suffering  and  the  smallness  of  the 
help  it  is  possible  to  give.  There  is  nothing  we  have  felt  more 
acutely  ourselves  during  our  three  years  out  here.  But  along  with 
this  feeling  of  helplessness  we  have  learnt  something  of  the  op- 
posite. At  a  time  when  people  are  thinking  in  continents,  in 
millions  of  lives  and  hundreds  of  millions  of  money,  we  have 
lived  in  small  villages  among  humble  people,  doing  unsensational 
though  interesting  work ;  we  have  come  to  see  that  personal  s>Tn- 
pathy  and  genuine  understanding  are  all  the  more  welcome  at  a 
time  when   individual  personality  is  generally  unconsidered. 

"We  hope  and  believe  that  you  will  share  with  us  the  love 
we  feel  for  the  peasants  of  France.  Their  civilization  and  their 
view  of  life  is  very  different  from  ours,  still  more  different  ])er- 
haps  from  yours.     It  is  a  civilization   which   has  great  respect 


70  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

for  symbols,  which  is  full  of  small  reverences  and  what  may  ap- 
pear almost  foolish  sensibilities.  But  these  reverences  and  sensi- 
bilities, when  understood,  are  the  keys  that  open  to  us  the  innate 
gladness  and  good  fellowship  of  the  French  people.  They  are 
at  present  struck  down  by  misery  almost  past  bearing.  There 
is  hardly  a  family  that  has  not  lost  two,  three  or  even  more  of 
their  nearest  in  the  war.  But  still  from  under  this  suffering 
springs  up  at  times  their  old  inherent  gaiety,  to  enjoy  which 
is  one  of  the  pleasures  of  our  work  which  we  wish  you  to  share 
with  us. 

"During  the  last  three  years  we  believe  that  those  we  have 
been  trying  to  help  have  come  to  appreciate  the  spirit  in  which 
our  work  is  given.  Certainly  ^Les  Amis'  are  known  in  districts 
far  beyond  the  limits  of  their  activities.  We  can  assure  you  a 
welcome,  not  only  from  ourselves,  but  from  the  people  among 
whom  you  will  live,  and  we  believe  that  the  work  before  you 
will  be  not  only  useful,  but  an  experience  which  ever  afterwards 
you  will  be  glad  to  have  known. 

"Signed  on  behalf  of  the  workers  in  France, 

"T.   Edmund  Harvey, 
"Wilfrid  Shewell, 
"Francis  L.  Birrell." 

Everybody  fell  in  heartily  with  the  new  plan.  Dr.  Bab- 
bitt showed  the  finest  possible  spirit.  It  was  obviously  not 
possible  for  him  under  the  new  arrangement  to  be  American 
Director  of  the  Unit.  He  was  confronted  with  a  medical 
task  which  called  for  all  his  boundless  energies  and  at  the 
same  time  the  Unit  itself  was  broken  up  into  many  frag- 
ments and  merged  into  complete  union  with  the  English 
workers,  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  Paris  Execu- 
tive Committee  and  its  officers.  Under  the  plan  of  triangu- 
lar cooperation  the  following  working  system  was  adopted 
with  officers  as  indicated  below. 


GETTING  UNDER  WAY  71 

Chairman  in  France — T.  Edmund  Harvey. 
Secretary  in  France — Wilfrid  Shewell. 
Treasurer  in  France — Ralph  Elliott. 

Address:  53  Rue  de  Kivoli,  Paris. 
Chairman  in  England — William  Albright. 
Secretary  in  England — A.  Ruth  Fry. 

Address:  Ethelburga  House,  Bishopsgate,  London. 
Chairman  in  U.  S.  A. — Rufus  M.  Jones. 
Secretary  in  U.  S.  A. — Vincent  D.  Nicholson. 

Address:  20  S.  12th  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Representative  in  France  of  American  Friends  Service  Com. — 

J.  Henry  Scattergood. 
Representatives  of  Red  Cross  on  Executive  Committee — Homer 

Folks,  Director  of  Dept.  of  Civil  Affairs;  J.  Henry  Scatter- 
good,  Chief  of  Bureau  of  Friends  Unit. 
Friends  Representative  on  Red  Cross  Commission: 

J.  Henry  Scattergood,  Chief  Bureau  of  Friends  Unit. 
Heads  of  Departments: 

Medical — Dr.  Hilda  Clark,  Maternity  Hospital,  Chalons-sur- 

Marne,  c/o  American  Red  Cross. 
Relief — S.  Margery  Fry,  "La  Source,"  Sermaize,  Mame. 
Agriculture — E.  G.  West,  "La  Source,"  Sermaize,  Mame. 
Building — Harold  E.  Trew,  20  Ave.  Victoria,  Paris. 
Manufacture  of  Houses — Norman  H.  Brooks,  Dole,  Jura. 

J.  Henry  Scattergood  who  had  gone  to  France  as  a  tem- 
porary commissioner  felt  compelled  to  return  home  and  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  summer  we  realized  very  keenly  that 
we  must  have  a  highly  qualified  man  to  take  the  positions 
temporarily  filled  by  him.  "We  knew  at  once  whom  we 
wanted  to  have  to  fill  this  important  executive  field-position, 
but  we  could  not  at  that  time  get  this  particular  Friend  for 
our  service  as  he  felt  that  he  could  not  honorably  drop  the 
responsible  work  which  he  was  then  doing.     His  turn  was 


72  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

however  to  come  later,  as  we  shall  see.  Other  men  occurred 
to  us  who  were  well  qualified  and  we  spent  much  earnest 
thought  before  we  made  the  selection  of  the  man  for  this 
task.  Our  choice  fell  upon  Charles  Evans,  of  Riverton, 
New  Jersey.  We  greatly  feared  he  could  not  leave  his  own 
business  affairs  at  such  a  critical  time  and  we  knew  how 
hard  it  would  be  for  any  man  to  leave  behind  for  a  year 
or  more  a  wife  and  family  of  three  children.  On  one  of  our 
visits  to  Washington  we  decided  that  the  time  had  come  to 
ask  Charles  Evans  to  go.  We  sent  him  a  telegram  from 
Washington  asking  him  to  come  down  to  Wilmington,  Del- 
aware, to  meet  us  on  our  returning  train  in  the  evening. 
He  came  as  requested.  We  laid  our  weighty  concern  upon 
him  as  the  train  covered  the  distance  between  the  two  cities 
and  when  we  got  off  in  Philadelphia  he  had  consented  to 
go  to  France  if  he  could  make  the  necessary  arrangements 
at  home  and  in  his  business,  which  he  believed  he  could  do, 
and  which  he  quickly  did.  It  was  one  of  those  divinely 
guided  steps,  which  have  so  often  marked  Quaker  under- 
takings in  the  past.  Charles  Evans  was  the  right  man  for 
the  work  we  had  in  hand  and  he  gave  himself  to  it  without 
any  reservations.  He  sailed  for  France  with  a  group  of 
workers  September  16th,  twelve  days  after  the  main  body 
of  workers  had  left  on  The  Rochamheau. 

After  visiting  the  equipes  and  living  for  some  time  with 
the  groups  of  workers  in  the  winter  of  1918-1919,  I  wrote 
the 'following  impression  of  the  success  of  the  experiment  of 
joining  forces  together. 

''At  first  the  amalgamation  was  not  easy:  both  groups 
were  Anglo-Saxon  and  they  were  both  in  the  main  composed 
of  Friends,  but  at  the  same  time  both  groups  had  marked 
traits  of  difference.  Habits  of  thought,  forms  and  accents 
of  speech,  typical  difference  in  native  humor,  characteristic 


GETTING  UNDER  WAY  73 

preferences  for  kinds  of  food,  and  many  other  contrasts, 
separated  the  men,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  were 
merged  together  on  paper  and  by  their  common  aim.  The 
English  workers  were  older,  maturer,  and  settled  in  their 
more  or  less  fixed  ways  of  work  and  life.  Our  men  were 
often  hardly  more  than  boys.  They  were  full  of  zest  and 
enthusiasm.  They  were  ready  for  any  amount  of  work,  but 
they  were  American,  first,  last  and  all  the  time.  Their 
national  characteristics  could  not  bo  mistaken.  They  were 
used  to  their  own  Western  ways,  fresh,  breezy,  unconven- 
tional, and  they  could  not  change  much  more  easily  than 
the  leopard  could  change  his  spots,  or  the  Ethiopian  his 
skin.  Speaking  frankly,  there  were  many  frictions,  and 
there  were  the  usual  difficulties  which  attend  international 
marriages!  There  are  letters  in  the  archives  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Committee  which  relate  how  some  Americans  viewed 
some  English  co-laborers,  and  there  are  letters  in  the  Lon- 
don archives  which  express  moods  and  attitudes  toward  the 
curious  American  cousins. 

"Time  has  gone  by,  the  workers  have  lived  together,  toiled 
together,  suffered  together,  laughed  and  wept  together  and 
they  have  become  a  united  group.  Each  has  learned  from 
the  other.  There  has  grown  up  a  fine  spirit  of  give  and 
take.  I  heard  many  Kn<,dish  Friends  say  unreservedly  that 
the  union  of  forces  had  been  a  great  satisfaction  and  bless- 
ing to  them,  and  1  heard  many  exi)ressions  from  our  Amer- 
ican workers  of  the  rich  and  positive  fruits  that  had  come 
to  them  through  the  intercourse,  the  co-operation  and  the 
fellowship.  The  religions  meetings  together  have  formed 
one  valuable  feature  of  the  association,  and  the  fr<'(|uent 
discussion  of  life  aims  and  national  ideals  has  been  another 
large  asset. 

*'At  first  the  work  of  direction  and  management  was 


74  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

largely  in  the  hands  of  English  workers,  especially  the 
executive  positions,  the  headship  of  departments  and  the 
leadership  in  the  local  equipes.  This  was,  of  course,  wholly 
as  it  should  have  been.  As  our  workers  gained  in  skill  and 
insight  and  revealed  their  gifts  and  qualities,  they  grad- 
ually won  important  positions  of  headship  and  direction, 
and  they  have  in  the  later  period  had  their  full  share 
in  the  management  of  the  Mission.  It  is  in  every  way  a 
joint  work  and  a  'conjunct'  undertaking.  The  experiment 
has  'worked'  as  we  say  in  America,  it  has  'answered'  as  the 
English  phrase  it.  The  comradeship,  the  fellowship  in  work 
and  life  will  be  among  the  happy  memories  which  the  groups 
from  both  countries  will  take  home  with  them  when  the 
Mission  closes  this  union  in  France,  and  will  have  done 
much  to  cement  for  the  future  English  and  American 
Quakerism." 

More  important,  however,  than  a  visitor's  impression  is 
the  settled  judgment  of  the  workers  themselves.  The  fol- 
lowing testimony  of  E.  Roy  Calvert,  writing  from  Varenn^s 
in  the  autumn  of  1919,  is  a  good  specimen  of  the  tj^pe  of 
view  we  have  been  getting  from  workers  both  English  and 
American : 

"The  work,  which  is  now  drawing  to  a  close,  has  been  a  large 
one,  and  our  personnel  has  been  extensive.  We  have  seen  the 
gathering  together  of  men  and  women  entirely  different  in  ways 
of  life,  ideas,  and  national  characteristics.  We  have  worked  to- 
gether in  little  gToups,  shared  in  the  same  primitive  conditions, 
and  come  into  very  intimate  contact.  We  have  pooled  our 
thoughts  and  ideals,  and  have  met  in  the  fellowship  of  the  same 
Meeting  for  Worship. 

"At  first  our  differences  seemed  acute,  and  no  doubt  some  of 
us  have  separated  and  gone  off  to  our  homes  without  ever  rising 
above  them.     Gradually,  however,  almost  unconsciously,  there  has 


GETTING  UNDER  WAY  75 

come  to  most  of  us  the  experience  of  a  fellowship  which,  tran- 
scending our  surface  differences,  has  bound  us  together  in  the 
bonds  of  a  spiritual  unity.  Our  differences  have  not  disappeared, 
nor  become  absorbed  in  the  mass,  but  in  the  warmth  of  a  common 
fellowship  our  individual  characteristics  have  been  uplifted  and 
purified,  and  fitted  into  the  scheme  of  the  whole. 

"This  cooperation  between  Friends  in  England  and  America 
has  been  more  than  a  material  one.  To  some  of  us  at  least  it 
has  entered  into  the  very  sanctuary  of  the  spiritual. 

"And  now  one  by  one  we  are  separating,  to  England  and  across 
the  seas;  but  this  fellowship  between  us  must  not  die.  Other 
fields  of  service  are  opening  up  in  Poland,  Serbia  and  elsewhere, 
and  we  must  share  that  work  together.  But  the  question  is  larger 
than  this.  I  write  as  an  Englishman  who  feels  the  strength  of 
the  forces  which  are  seeking  to  alienate  our  two  countries.  Does 
not  the  call  come  to  all  those  who  name  the  name  of  Friend 
to  witness  to  the  spiritual  oneness  of  all  peoples'?  We  have 
shared  in  this  great  work  together,  and  have  a  gi-eat  love  one  for 
the  other.  God  grant  that  in  whatever  new  endeavors  he  may 
call  us,  we  may  still  be  united  in  that  tie  which  is  strongest  of  all 
ties,  the  warm  tie  of  such  a  fellowship  as  we  have  known  here 
in  France." 

One  other  interesting  item  belongs  in  this  chapter,  de- 
voted to  getting  under  way.  This  was  the  generous  appro- 
priation of  533,000  francs  made  to  our  relief  work  by  the 
American  Red  Cross  in  France.  This  was  to  cover  a 
specified  budget  which  included  many  lines  of  activity,  such 
as  the  Chalons  maternity  hospital,  the  construction  of 
houses,  the  cost  of  furniture  for  the  houses,  the  purchase 
of  farm  machinery  and  more  motor  cars.  Out  of  this  fund 
came  also. the  sums  required  to  prepare  and  equip  the  new 
hospital  which  Dr.  Babbitt  and  his  band  of  helpers  created 
in  the  Chateau  at  Sermaize.     When  Henr>^  Scattergood  left 


76  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

the  field  of  his  labors  in  October  to  come  home,  the  work  was 
well  launched,  and  the  success  of  it  seemed  assured. 

I  have  necessarily  had  much  to  say  of  the  leaders  and 
organizers  of  this  enterprise.  It  should,  however,  be  said 
emphatically  that  the  spirit  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
workers  themselves  was  the  greatest  and  most  signal  feature 
of  the  Unit.  They  made  the  success  of  the  undertaking. 
They  gave  themselves  to  it  with  abandon  and  worked  with 
real  consecration  for  the  ends  we  all  had  in  view.  Much 
of  the  work  they  did  was  monotonous  and  dull,  far  removed 
from  the  theater  of  the  war,  and  from  the  regions  where 
the  relief  was  to  be  finally  applied.  Through  the  rain  and 
mud  and  cold  the  group  worked  on,  for  no  returns,  for  no 
reward,  solely  to  make  their  contribution  to  thoee  who  were 
suffering.  They  are  the  ones  who  deserve  whatever  glory 
attaches  to  the  success  of  the  completed  service. 


CHAPTER  VII 

GETTING  THE  ENTIRE  SOCIETY  OF  FRIENDS  BEHIND  THE  WORK 

For  almost  a  hundred  years  Friends  in  America  have 
been  a  divided  people,  unable  to  give  a  united  support  to 
any  cause.  Even  the  work  for  the  abolition  of  the  slaves 
and  for  the  care  of  the  freedmen  failed  to  bring  Friends 
together  for  a  common  task,  but  the  immense  tragedies  of 
the  world  war  made  it  impossible  for  serious  men  and 
women  to  busy  themselves  any  longer  with  insignificant  and 
trivial  issues.  The  call  for  relief,  and  the  opportunity  to 
serve  which  was  now  opened  to  Friends  made  a  profound 
appeal  to  all  the  members  everjnvhere.  Divisions  were  dis- 
regarded and  separations  overlooked.  Genuine  sympathy 
for  suffering  and  the  human  appeal  which  touched  the  heart 
made  all  Friends  feel  kin  to  one  another  and  in  fellowship 
with  those  who  needed  help.  Nothing  was  said  about  unit- 
ing. No  labored  efforts  were  made  to  heal  breaches. 
Friends  spontaneously  acted  together  without  stopping  to 
think  out  a  plan  or  scheme  of  unity.  They  simply  found 
themselves  working  together  in  a  great  cause. 

The  work  became  consequently  a  corporate  undertaking 
and  not  the  affair  simply  of  a  committee.  Every  meeting 
throughout  the  country  had  its  part  in  it,  and  it  became 
quite  natural  to  say  "our  work."  Sewing,  knitting  and 
food  canning  occupied  almost  every  Quaker  community. 
Each  ^Meeting  had  its  local  Service  Committee,  the  secre- 
tary of  which  received  detailed  instructions  from  headquar- 

77 


78  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

ters  as  to  needs  and  methods,  patterns,  preferred  colors, 
etc.  Often  the  local  treasurer  purchased  wool  and  cloth  out 
of  the  funds  subscribed,  and  distributed  them  to  members 
for  making  up.  Frequently  the  local  committees  held 
weekly  sewing  bees,  when  members  could  have  the  joy  and 
inspiration  of  corporate  work  and  the  pleasant  sociability 
of  sewing  in  concert  for  a  common  object.  At  these  gather- 
ings letters  and  news  from  workers  on  the  field  were  read, 
and  the  workers  at  home  so  kept  closely  in  touch  with  the 
conditions  at  the  front. 

Through  these  local  organizations  also  the  regular  canvass 
of  every  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends  for  contributions 
to  the  work  was  carried  on.  Regular  subscribers  were 
awarded  a  button  to  wear  with  the  eight-pointed  star,  the 
emblem  of  all  the  workers  abroad  and  at  home.  Meetings 
which  desired  it  were  also  given  a  Friends  Service  Flag, 
bearing  the  same  red  and  black  star,  to  hang  in  front  of  or 
inside  their  Meeting  house. 

The  story  of  the  condition  of  the  refugees  was  simply, 
quietly,  and  yet  impressively  told  to  the  groups  of  Friends. 
Everybody  who  could  sew  or  knit  felt  a  call  to  produce 
garments.  The  sudden  return  to  primitive  pioneer  activi- 
ties was  most  striking.  Our  grandmothers  and  great- 
grandmothers  carried  knitting  everywhere  with  them  and 
acquired  the  art  of  knitting  "without  observation,"  that  is, 
by  subconscious  movement  of  muscles,  and  this  achievement 
was  made  once  more  by  multitudes  of  busy  wives  and 
mothers  and  by  young  girls,  sometimes  even  by  dignified 
men.  The  result  in  the  creation  of  garments  was  most 
gratifying.  Only  those  who  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  the 
distribution  of  these  garments,  and  of  sharing  in  the  joy  of 
the  recipients  of  them  can  ever  fully  know  the  far-reaching 
effects  of  this  local  work  of  relief.     Some  of  the  stories  from 


THE  SOCIETY  BEHIND  THE  WORK  79 

the  field  of  the  reception  of  the  articles  made  by  American 
women  Friends  give  quaint  and  touching  side-lights  on  the 
French  peasant  character  and  on  the  d-estitution  caused 
by  the  war.  Frances  C.  Ferris,  writing  from  Charmont 
says: 

'*I  want  to  tell  you  to  whom  your  quilts  went.     Among 
the  old  refugee  women  here  at  Charmont  are  two  whose 

stories  are  particularly  interesting:  Madame  P 's  home 

was  at  Verdun,  just  outside  the  ancient  Porte  Chause  that 
one  sees  on  the  little  Verdun  medals.  In  the  first  great 
German  advance,  her  three  daughters-in-law  fled  panic- 
stricken  with  their  families,  leaving  Madame  P ill  in 

bed.  There  she  continued  to  live  for  the  next  year  and  a 
half,  quite  alone.  How  she  managed  it  is  impossible  to  im- 
agine, as  she  is  paralyzed  all  down  her  right  side,  and  a  tre- 
mendously heav>^  woman  beside.  She  cooked  her  frugal 
meals  and  swept  her  little  room  with  one  hand,  but  for  eight- 
een months  she  never  undressed.  The  soldiers  quartered  in 
the  city  were  very  kind-hearted,  she  said,  and  used  to  bring 
her  water,  but  ''they  didn't  reckon  to  play  lady's  maid." 
Then,  at  the  second  Verdun  attack,  when  the  Germans  were 
shelling  the  city  from  only  four  miles  away,  as  she  cowered 
in  her  little  cottage,  the  Cure  came  to  her  door  in  the  snow. 
**Tiens,  ma  grandmere,  vous  restez  tou jours  id.  Mais  il 
faut  partir.  Le  Boche  vient  demain."  And  so  that  night 
she  was  hoisted  into  a  train  of  wounded  and  dying  soldiers 
and  shipped  to  Bar-le-Duc.  There  she  stayed  at  the  Hos- 
pice until  it,  too,  was  bombed  by  the  Boches  and  evacuated. 
Her  next  refuge  was  a  convent  in  the  Haute  Mame,  where, 
according  to  her  lurid  tale,  the  Schonberg-Cotta  family 
type  of  treatment  prevailed  in  its  highest  form.  The  poor 
emigrees  evidently  were  most  unkindly  treated,  and  IMa- 
dame  P spent  quite  the  wretchedest  year  of  all  before 


80  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

the  *'Amis"  came,  as  she  expresses  it,  '^me  delivrer  du  joug 
de  ces  ogresses." 

The  other  grandmere's  story  is  short  and  sad,  the  ''simple 
annals  of  the  poor."  She  had  one  only  darling  grandson, 
with  whom  she  lived  in  their  little  cottage  near  Revigny. 
He  cherished  and  cared  for  her  after  her  long  life  of 
hardship  and  abuse.  She  worked  their  little  garden,  raised 
some  chickens  among  which,  the  pride  and  joy  of  the  grand- 
mere's heart,  was  a  beautiful  cock  with  a  golden  tail.  Then 
suddenly  Revigny  became  the  battlefield  of  the  Mame,  the 
little  cottage  was  burned,  the  grandson  taken  prisoner  and 
killed,  the  grandmere  left  desolate  at  seventy-eight.  But 
the  greatest  pathos  of  her  story  is  in  the  description  of  how 
the  soldiers  killed  her  beau  coque  with  the  bright  tail- 
feathers.  ''Oui,  ma  fille,  they  wrung  his  neck,  the  coquins, 
before  my  very  eyes,  and  then  they  sat  and  ate  him  at  my 
own  table,  my  beautiful  cock." 

' '  These  French  peasants  cling  to  their  little  possessions — 
the  things  that  no  matter  how  mean  and  poor,  are  their 
very  own,  in  a  way  that  we  cannot  understand.  It  some- 
times seems  as  though  loss  of  family  and  children  were  as 
nothing  to  them  compared  to  the  loss  of  property.  It  is 
the  substance  of  things  hoped  for.  That  is,  their  property 
is  the  thing  they  can  transmit,  the  visible  bond  that  links 
one  generation  to  the  next  and  makes  the  family  the  insti- 
tution that  it  is  in  France. 

''And  so  you  can  imagine  what  those  quilts  were  to  those 
two  old  dears.  To  oirn  anything  is  a  joy  such  as  they  had 
not  expeeted  ever  again  to  experience.  But  don 't  think  for 
one  moment  that  they  went  on  their  beds.  Nothing  so 
reckless.  They  are  preserved  for  posterity.  Meantime  we 
provide  blankets  to  warm  their  old  bones,  but  let  me  assure 
you  that  it  is  you  that  have  warmed  their  hearts. ' ' 


THE  SOCIETY  BEHIND  THE  WORK  81 

An  average  of  about  50  packages  and  3,200  garments  per 
week  were  sent  through  the  central  store-room  of  the 
Friends  Service  Committee  to  France  for  distribution. 
As  early  as  July  15th,  1918,  a  total  of  80,748  garments  had 
been  sent  abroad.  All  these  shipments  were  made  free  of 
charge  through  the  American  Red  Cross  Shipping  Service. 
The  congestion  of  shipping  would  have  made  it  utterly  im- 
possible for  us  to  have  got  this  immense  quantity  of  freight 
across  the  ocean  if  we  had  not  had  the  assistance  of  this 
great  relief  organization.  They  gave  us  unusual  advantages 
and  even  in  the  most  difficult  periods  of  ocean  service  our 
boxes  filled  with  garments  continued  to  go  forward  on  their 
mission  of  love.  The  Friends  of  Race  Street  fleeting  in 
Philadelphia  gave  us  one  of  the  large  meeting-rooms  of 
their  ancient  meeting-house  as  headquarters  for  storing  and 
repacking  the  garments.  It  was  always  a  busy  place  and 
presented  a  thrilling  sight.  Mary  H.  Whitson  had  the  im- 
mediate oversight  of  the  sorting  and  packing  of  garments, 
and  she  has  done  a  piece  of  work  which  deservTS  a  promi- 
nent place  in  the  new  ''Sartor  Resartus,"  or  clothes  philoso- 
phy, if  ever  a  new  Carlyle  writes  the  story  of  it. 

Very  extensive  work,  cutting  cloth  into  garments,  was 
carried  on  in  the  Arch  Street  Meeting  House  in  Philadel- 
phia, in  which  work  Albert  L.  Baily,  Jr.,  rendered  great  serv- 
ice. By  excellent  foresight  large  quantities  of  cloth  were 
purchased  before  the  advance  of  price  made  cloth  a  luxury. 

In  addition  to  the  clothing  made  by  women  workers, 
about  thirty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  candy,  ready-made 
garments,  blankets,  condensed  milk,  and  drugs  had  been 
up  to  that  date  purchased  and  sent  abroad. 

The  central  office  of  the  Five  Years'  ^Meeting  did  a  large 
amount  of  efficient  work  toward  organizing  the  subordinate 
meetings  under  its  care,  even  before  the  Five  Years'  Meet- 


82  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

ing  was  held  in  October  1917.  By  the  action  of  that  meet- 
ing, which  showed  much  enthusiasm  for  the  French  mission, 
the  work  of  the  Service  Committee  was  heartily  endorsed, 
and  each  yearly  meeting  under  the  Five  Years '  Meeting  was 
requested  to  appoint  a  yearly  meeting's  service  committee 
to  cooperate  with  the  central  committee  in  Philadelphia 
and  to  assist  in  perfecting  organizations  in  all  the  local 
meetings  of  the  entire  body.  Similar  action  was,  at  a  later 
time,  taken  also  by  the  Arch  Street  and  Race  Street  yearly 
meetings  of  Philadelphia. 

The  Service  Committee,  in  its  developed  form,  consisted 
of  the  following  members:  William  C.  Biddle,  T.  Janney 
Brown,  Henry  J.  Cadbury,  Arabella  Carter,  Rebecca  Car- 
ter, John  R.  Cary,  William  W.  Cocks,  Henry  W.  Comfort, 
William  W.  Comfort,  Charles  Evans,  Harold  Evans,  Wil- 
liam B.  Harvey,  L.  Clarkson  Hinshaw,  Allen  D.  Hole,  Jesse 
H.  Holmes,  Hannah  Clothier  Hull,  Arthur  C.  Jackson, 
J.  Edwin  Jay,  Charles  F.  Jenkins,  Rufus  M.  Jones,  Morris 
E.  Leeds,  Lucy  Biddle  Lewis,  John  R.  Maxwell,  Annie  A. 
Mendenhall,  Homer  L.  Morris,  Vincent  D.  Nicholson, 
Charles  J.  Rhoads,  Lewis  L.  Rockwell,  Albert  S.  Rogers, 
J.  Henrj^  Scattergood,  Alfred  C  Scattergood,  Alva  J. 
Smith,  Edgar  H.  Stranahan,  Edward  F.  Stratton,  Willard 
E.  Swift,  Anne  G.  Walton,  J.  Barnard  Walton,  J.  Harold 
Watson,  L.  Hollingsworth  Wood,  Walter  C.  Woodward, 
Florence  P.  Yarnall,  Stanley  R.  Yamall.  Throughout 
almost  the  whole  period  we  kept  a  stream  of  lecturers  going 
into  the  various  Quaker  communities,  telling  the  story  of 
the  work  abroad  and  keeping  the  people  at  home  in  touch 
with  what  was  happening.  Whenever  a  commissioner,  or 
worker  who  could  talk  well,  came  home  from  France  he 
was  doomed  to  a  season  of  travel  and  to  the  life  of  an 
itinerant  lecturer  until  the  advance  and  progress  of  the 


THE  SOCIETY  BEHIND  THE  WORK  83 

work  made  his  story  out  of  date.  IMorris  Leeds  came  first ; 
then  Henry  Scattergood  arrived,  who  proved  himself  to 
be  a  much  enduring  traveller  and  a  capital  lecturer.  The 
officers  of  the  committee,  even  before  they  had  been  on  the 
field,  were  frequently  called  upon  to  describe  the  work 
and  to  set  forth  its  aims,  so  that  they  had  to  be  ready  at 
any  moment's  notice  to  go  out  on  talking  trips.  Isaac 
Sharpless,  President  W.  W.  Comfort  of  Haverford  and  Lucy 
Biddle  Lewis  also  made  a  large  contribution  of  time  and 
effort  toward  this  important  work  of  propaganda. 

As  time  went  on  the  women's  committee  which  had  been 
appointed  by  the  Service  Committee  at  an  early  period  be- 
came an  important  feature.  It  was  composed  of  a  group  of 
devoted,  efficient  women,  with  Lucy  Biddle  Lewis  of  Lans- 
downe,  Pennsylvania,  as  chairman.  They  met  frequently 
and  worked  individually  in  the  interim  between  meetings. 
They  selected  and  equipped  the  women  workers  who  were 
sent  to  France.  They  maintained  an  oversight  over  the 
sewing,  knitting  and  cutting  work  as  well  as  over  the 
packing  of  the  garments  for  shipping.  They  were  in 
numerous  ways  a  constant  source  of  contribution  to  the 
development  of  the  work. 

The  periodicals  of  the  Society  of  Friends — The  Friend, 
The  American  Friend,  and  The  Friends  Intelligencer — 
were  well  nigh  indispensable  to  our  work.  They  gave 
large  space  to  it  every  week.  They  reported  plans,  an- 
nounced each  new  move,  issued  calls  for  volunteers,  stirred 
up  interest,  interpreted  our  ideals,  and  kept  the  member- 
ship informed  about  the  entire  service.  They  printed 
many  letters  from  the  workers,  published  details  of  the 
work,  and  carried  into  a  multitude  of  homes  the  story  of 
reconstruction.  Any  one  who  turns  back  to  earlier  files 
of  these  same  papers  will  be  interested  to  see  the  change  of 


84  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

perspective  and  to  observe  how  action  and  service  have 
usurped  the  place  once  occupied  by  problems  of  theology. 
The  public  press  of  the  country,  too,  has  shown  a  warm 
interest  in  the  relief  work  of  Friends  and  has  been  ready 
at  all  times  to  give  it  support  and  commendation.  Local 
papers  have  printed  many  letters  from  the  workers  who 
came  from  the  respective  communities  where  the  papers 
circulated,  and  this  publicity  has  been  of  distinct  value 
to  the  work.  Most  of  the  popular  magazines  of  the  country 
have  contained  articles,  often  profusely  illustrated,  telling 
in  interesting  and  attractive  narrative  the  story  of  the 
work,  and  Sunday  editions  of  the  great  daily  newspapers 
have  given  much  appreciated  publicity.  Publicity  has  not 
been  sought  for  its  own  sake,  it  has  been  welcomed  only 
as  a  means  to  a  larger  end — the  real  advancement  of  the 
service  itself.  It  is  a  peculiar  cause  for  thanksgiving  that 
not  only  within  the  Society  of  Friends  but  in  the  accounts 
given  from  outside  the  membership  as  well,  the  one  aim  of 
unselfish  service  has  been  clearly  kept  in  view. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  the  whole  under- 
taking was  the  splendid  financial  support  which  it  received 
from  all  Friends,  from  the  Mennonites  and  from  many  other 
interested  people.  As  the  work  grew  and  expanded  the 
funds  for  it  were  always  available.  It  caught  the  imagin- 
ation of  our  people,  it  won  their  faith  and  confidence 
and  they  supported  it  loyally  and  generously.  During 
the  period  under  review  in  these  chapters  more  than  two 
million  dollars  have  passed  through  our  hands  and  have 
gone  into  the  work  of  relief,  and  we  expect  to  spend  even 
more  than  that  amount  in  feeding  the  mal-nourished  Ger- 
man children,  a  work  now  just  in  its  initial  stage. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH 

Ever  since  George  Pox  told  the  commissioners  of  the 
English  Commonwealth  that  he  lived  in  virtue  of  that  life 
and  power  which  takes  away  the  occasion  for  all  war,  and 
then,  because  of  his  refusal  to  fight,  went  into  a  "dungeon 
amongst  rogues  and  felons,"  the  Society  of  Friends  has 
borne  its  testimony  to  a  way  of  life  so  incompatible  with 
the  methods  of  war,  that  its  members  who  clearly  and 
positively  accept  the  former  way  have  found  it  impossible 
to  adopt  the  latter  methods.  Every  time  England  or 
America  has  been  engaged  in  an  extensive  war  the  Friends 
in  these  countries  have  found  their  principles  put  to  a 
searching  test  and  have  had  to  decide  the  issue  within 
the  inner  chamber  of  their  souls.  The  individual  decisions 
have,  of  course,  not  been  uniform.  Like  those  knights  of 
Arthur's  court  who  went  to  seek  the  Holy  Grail,  Friends 
have  ''seen  what  they  have  seen,"  some  holding  unswerv- 
ingly to  the  ideal  vision  and  some  adopting  the  methods  of 
the  hour.  But  throughout  the  years  the  corporate  body, 
in  its  official  utterances  and  messages  has  consistently 
taken  the  ground  that  Christianity,  as  Friends  hold  and 
interpret  it,  is  a  type  of  religion  utterly  incompatible  with 
war.  Every  Friend  consequently  realized,  as  the  date  of 
mobilization  of  the  drafted  men  drew  on,  that  a  great 
testing  of  the  faith  was  at  hand.  IIow  would  the  drafted 
Friends  meet  the  issue  when  their  day  came? 

85 


86  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

The  Society  of  Friends  has  always  had  such  an  exalted 
estimate  of  the  sacrediiess  of  individual  conscience,  and  such 
faith  in  the  autonomy  of  the  soul,  that  it  refrains  from  any 
policy  of  issuing  directions  to  its  members  on  questions  of 
moral  decision.  It  furnishes  as  a  body  what  light  it  can 
give  on  great  spiritual  principles,  but  it  leaves  the  tiller 
in  the  hands  of  each  individual  Friend  to  steer  his  own 
course  in  moral  issues  and  to  settle  his  own  destiny.  The 
Service  Committee  wrote  a  letter  to  young  Friends  which 
contained  the  following  passages: 

"We  can  only  advise  you  to  decide  your  own  course  before 
the  high  tribunal  of  your  own  conscience.  This  is  the  tribunal 
which  the  Government  has  recognized  in  its  Law  and  in  the  affi- 
davit forms  of  its  Regulations,  and  obedience  to  the  mandates  of 
conscience  is  thus  within  the  law  as  enacted  and  interpreted. 
You  are  peculiarly  the  standard  bearers  of  the  Society  of  Friends 
in  this  time  of  its  greatest  crisis  during  our  generation.  We  hope 
that  you  are  so  deeply  grounded  in  Christian  principles  as  held  by 
the  Society  of  Friends  that  your  conscience  will  lead  you  to  act 
consistently  with  these  principles.  Just  in  proportion  as  this 
shall  be  the  case,  will  those  principles  command  respect  and  gain 
influence.  Only  as  our  young  men  follow  the  historic  ideals  of 
Friends,  will  our  long-standing  testimony  be  more  than  a  mean- 
ingless mass  of  words.  Only  in  this  way  will  we  secure  consid- 
eration for  our  convictions.  The  War  Department  will  also  cer- 
tainly judge  of  our  principles  by  the  action  of  the  majority  of 
our  members.  It  is  thus  of  supreme  importance  that  those  of 
our  members  who  have  made  affidavits  for  discharge  on  the  gTound 
of  being  prevented  by  conscience  from  'participation  in  war  in 
any  form'  seek  very  clear  guidance  in  acting  consistently  with 
their  affidavits." 

The  Service  Committee  at  the  same  time  endeavored  to 
secure  the  privilege  from  the  War  Department  for  members 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  87 

of  the  Society  of  Friends  to  go  to  the  mobilization  camps  at 
their  own  expense  and  in  their  own  way  without  joining 
the  mobilizing  squads  which  were  going  as  a  body  on  the 
trains.  This  request  was  not  granted.  As  chairman  of 
the  committee,  1  received  from  Dr.  F.  P.  Keppel,  at  this 
period  private  secretary  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  a  letter 
dealing  with  this  point,  an  extract  from  which  is  of  interest. 
It  was  as  follows : 

"War  Department 
"Washington 

September  10,  1917. 
"Dear  Professor  Jones: 

"Referring  to  your  telegram  of  the  first,  I  have  just  received 
from  the  Provost  Marshal  General  word  to  the  effect  that  the  pro- 
cedure that^  requires  persons  holding  certificates  of  exemption 
from  noncombatant  service  to  report  to  mobilization  camps  is 
one  that  has  been  adopted  for  the  convenience  of  the  Govern- 
ment. To  depart  from  this  procedure  would  cause  great  confu- 
sion and  would  accomplish  no  useful  purpose.  The  Selective 
Service  Law  exempts  adherents  to  certain  creeds  from  com- 
batant service,  but  it  does  not  exempt  them  from  military  serv- 
ice. On  the  contrary,  the  bill  provides  for  a  selective  draft  to 
maintain  the  organizations  of  the  Regular  Army,  to  complete 
and  maintain  the  organizations  of  the  National  Guard,  and  to 
organize  and  maintain  the  National  Army.  It  is  a  bill  to  in- 
crease temporarily  the  military  establishment  of  the  United  States 
and,  after  providing  for  the  draft  of  persons  adhering  to  these 
creeds,  it  specifically  requires  that  no  person  exempted  on  ac- 
count of  their  religious  belief  shall  be  exempt  from  service  in 
any  capacity  that  the  President  shall  declare  to  be  noncombatant. 
This  provision  of  the  law  will  be  scrupulously  executed.  The 
President  has  so  far  declared  service  in  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment of  the  Army  to  be  noncombatant.  He  has  not,  up  to  this 
date,  declared  service  in  the  American  Friends   Reconstruction 


88  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Unit  to  be  such  military,  noncombatant  service  as  to  justify  the 
assignment  sought." 

Dr.  Keppel  went  on  to  quote  the  hope  expressed  to  him 
by  Provost  Marshal  General  Crowder  that  Friends  would 
not  insist  on  their  objection  to  travelling  on  trains  with 
other  selected  men  as  the  point  of  objection  seemed  to  him 
*'a  very  little  one,"  and  urging  that  Friends  *' withdraw 
their  objection  and  place  themselves  in  an  attitude  of 
cooperation  with  the  efforts  of  those  charged  with  the 
execution  of  the  law."  The  ruling  was,  however,  made 
to  us  that  the  act  of  going  to  camp  should  not  be  considered 
as  an  act  of  obedience  to  a  military  order,  since  this  latter 
stage  would  begin  only  after  the  men  were  duly  registered 
in  camp.  With  this  understanding  most  young  Friends 
who  were  in  the  first  draft  went  to  the  mobilization  camps 
on  the  day"  appointed — September  18th,  1917.  A  very  few 
declined  to  go  and  remained  at  their  homes  until  they  were 
visited  at  a  later  time  by  officers  and  taken  to  the  camp, 
where  they  were  treated  in  practically  the  same  way  as 
were  those  who  had  gone  voluntarily. 

The  position  of  a  man  who  goes  against  the  current  of 
popular  opinion  is  always  difficult  and  beset  with  pitfalls, 
not  only  outward  and  objective  but  also  inward  and  sub- 
jective. First  he  must  be  clear-headed  to  see  exactly 
where  and  how  he  differs  from  his  fellows,  and  to  lay  his 
finger  on  the  perceived  fallacy  in  their  position  which  causes 
him  to  maintain  his  own.  And  secondly  he  must  be  sweet- 
spirited  to  bear  in  mind,  under  all  provocation,  how  ex- 
tremely trying  his  apparent  pig-headed  self-assurance  must 
be  to  all  his  disagreeing  brethren,  secure  as  they  are  in  the 
backing  of  age,  public  opinion  and  tradition. 

Never  can  the  trial  be  more  severe,  both  of  the  dissenting 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  89 

individual  and  of  the  majority  convinced  of  rij^hteousness, 
than  when  the  dissenter  is  one  who  persists  in  maintaining 
his  previous  innocuous  peace  ideas  in  time  of  war,  and  under 
the  august  operation  of  a  military  service  act.  It  only 
adds  to  the  public  irritation  that  a  few  months  previously 
many  of  them  were  inclined  to  adopt  his  ideas  as  becoming 
and  progressive  in  an  enlightened  age.  How  dare  this 
upstart  be  more  consistent  than  themselves?  How  dare 
he  weigh  so  lightly  the  arguments  that  have  been  good 
enough  for  them?  It  is  of  all  things  essential  that  the  bold 
dissenter  be  almost  superhumanly  consistent,  tolerant, 
gentle,  courteous,  humorous,  wise,  equal  to  all  occasions 
and  surprises,  or  with  joy  and  relief  otherwise  his  suc- 
cessful persecutors  will  dub  him  hypocrite,  and  all  his 
effort  will  have  gone  for  nought. 

Quite  naturally  when  the  draft  law  began  calling  young 
Friends  into  camp,  their  lines  of  action  were  various,  and 
sometimes  uncertain.  To  many  of  the  bo^^s  from  the 
farms,  unaccustomed  to  hard  thinking  or  to  expressing  their 
thoughts,  their  conscientious  objection  to  war  was  more  a 
deep-rooted  instinct  than  a  reasoned  faith  or  opinion. 
They  were  sure  nothing,  not  even  the  fear  of  death,  should 
make  them  fight;  but  beyond  that  they  were  sometimes 
hazy  and  uncertain.  And  many  with  better  opportunities 
and  less  excuse  than  they,  were  hazy  and  uncertain  too 
in  the  bewilderment  of  the  time.  Where  to  draw  the  line, 
was  the  standard  question.  ''How  far  can  one  go  without 
compromising  conscience?"  Some  boys  refused  to  drill, 
others  consented  to  drill  but  refused  to  carry  arms;  but 
the  really  fundamental  differences  which  divided  ''the  con- 
scientious objectors"  into  well-defined  classes  were  that  some 
were  satisfied  if  the}'  themselves  were  personally  free  from 
the  responsibility  of  killing,  while  others  were  objectors 


90  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

to  the  whole  system  of  war,  and  were  not  content  to  be  even 
the  hindmost  parts  of  the  military  machine.  This  last 
class  did  not  ask  "How  far  can  we  go  without  compromis- 
ing our  conscience?"  Their  conscience  was  not  merely  a 
m^^stically-conceived  inward  voice  capable  of  such  quibbles 
as  to  allow  them  to  be  part  of  an  army  but  not  to  do 
any  of  the  major  deeds  which  an  army  is  for.  Their  con- 
science was  closely  linked  with  common  sense  and  reason, 
and  with  certain  definite  ideas  as  to  what  kind  of  action 
makes  for  progress  and  perfection  of  life  and  what  does  not. 
Their  religion  was  not  against  and  in  spite  of  common 
sense,  but  its  strongest  support.  They  desired  a  world  of 
peace  and  righteousness,  and  their  logical  conclusion  was 
that  they  therefore  had  to  live  peace  and  righteousness. 

To  them  the  thing  inadequately  and  unfortunately 
called  **a  peace  testimony"  was  not  something  that  merely 
came  into  being  in  time  of  war,  but  involved  a  way  of 
life  governed,  regardless  of  times  and  seasons,  by  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christ.  And  when  a  war  in  which  their  country 
was  a  participator  presented  a  barrier  to  this  ideal,  their 
position  was  not  one  of  passive  protest,  but  of  the  active 
presentation  of  a  better  way. 

The  stories  of  the  dealings  with  Friends  of  this  class 
and  others  like-minded,  in  the  military  training  camps  in 
America,  can  be  read  in  detail  in  the  correspondence  of 
the  Friends  Service  Committee  and  elsewhere.  The  in- 
cidents related  here  are  told  in  no  spirit  of  criticism  of 
any  individuals,  but  merely  to  make  plain  the  situation 
when  an  unyielding  and  rigid  organization  like  the  military 
enters  the  field  to  grind  such  men  into  the  common  pattern. 
These  incidents  also  make  evident  that  these  men,  unusual 
as  they  were  in  their  action,  were  not  after  all  far  from 
the  pattern   of  their  fellows   in  the  deepest   convictions 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  91 

of  all.  Some  have  tried  to  prove  that  the  conscientious 
objector  was  abnormal.  It  would  appear  rather  that  he 
was  a  normal  person  who  had  the  courage  of  his  convic- 
tions. The  instinctive  dislike  of  the  normal  civilized  man 
to  the  idea  of  killing  another  man,  is  common  knowledge; 
it  took  all  the  psychology  of  military  training  with  its  power 
to  deaden  thought,  and  even,  on  the  actual  field  of  battle, 
more  extreme  measures,  to  bring  the  ordinary  man  to  the 
requisite  pitch  of  semi-delirious  savagery  to  make  a  good 
soldier. 

The  Friend  merely  declined  to  begin  to  put  his  highest 
nature  under  the  control  of  this  system.  War  ought  not 
to  happen.  If  individual  men  refused  to  take  part  in  it, 
it  could  not  happen.     He  therefore  stopped  right  there. 

That  he  was  capable  of  courage,  of  self-sacrifice,  of  en- 
durance of  hardship,  he  proved  both  in  going  through  the 
mill  in  the  camps,  and  subsequently  in  the  reconstruction 
work  in  France  to  which  a  wise  government  finally  allowed 
him  to  devote  his  energy. 

The  case  of  S.  W.  S.,  Camp  Cody,  is  one  that  affords 
a  survey  of  a  good  many  points  of  difficulty,  some  at  least 
of  which  were  present  in  every  case  of  what  came  to  be 
called  the  absolute  CO. — that  is,  the  one  to  whom  the 
matter  was  broader  than  just  his  own  personal  cleanness  of 
hand  from  the  actual  killing,  and  who  declined  to  become 
in  any  way  a  part  of  the  military  machine.  The  following 
letter  from  the  boy's  mother  is  interesting: 

"Within  a  few  days  after  arriving,  after  examinations,  etc., 
they  were  taken  for  uniforms,  which  he  did  not  feel  he  should  put 
on,  and  did  not.  The  clothinj^,  which  was  the  blue  jumpers  they 
use  for  first  uniform,  was  put  on  him  in  a  harsh  manner,  and 
afterward  he  was  suhjected  to  cruel  and  iiiliuinan  treatment. 
After  refusing  to  accept  any  of  the  so-called  noncombatant  or 


92  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

any  substitute  work  he  was  put  under  gnard,  and  kept  in  stock- 
ade about  three  weeks,  his  suitcase,  money,  and  even  some  small 
necessities  being  kept  from  him.  After  the  court-martial,  in 
which  he  was  acquitted,  he  was  taken  back  into  camp,  having  en- 
dured much  cruelty  at  one  time  while  in  the  stockade.  Efforts 
were  made  to  have  him  accept  soldier  work,  and  he  was  again 
taken  for  the  khaki  uniform  which  he  could  not  accept  and 
would  not  put  on  himself.  The  corporal  (as  I  understand,  under 
the  Lieutenant's  orders)  beating  him  cruelly  and  gouging  thumbs 
in  his  eyes,  while  blood  from  his  nose  ran  down  upon  his  clothing, 
he  occasionally  being  knocked  down  during  the  process.  Failing 
in  getting  him  to  do  it,  the  corporal  put  the  clothes  on  him." 

For  a  time  after  the  gouging  it  seemed  likely  that  the 
sight  of  S.  W.  S. 's  eyes  would  be  permanently  injured, 
but  after  a  few  weeks  they  largely  recovered,  and  the  sight 
began  to  return  to  normal. 

^'They  tell  me,"  writes  S.  W.  S.  to  a  friend  at  this  time,  "that 
I  could  make  trouble  for  the  noncommissioned  officers  if  I  would 
report  them,  but  I  did  not  want  to  do  that  at  all  unless  it  seemed 
necessary. 

"A  lieutenant  told  me  Second  Day  [Monday]  that  I  would  sure 
go  to  Leavenworth  for  twenty-five  years  if  I  did  not  change. 

"I  have  been  stripped  and  scrubbed  with  a  broom,  put  under 
a  faucet  with  my  mouth  held  open,  had  a  rope  around  my  neck 
and  pulled  up  choking  tight  for  a  bit,  been  fisted,  slapped,  kicked, 
carried  a  bag  of  sand  and  dirt  until  I  could  hardly  hold  it  and 
go,  have  been  kept  under  a  shower-bath  until  pretty  chilled."  .  .  . 
"If  this  information  will  do  no  good  for  others  thou  may  just 
bum  this  letter  and  let  it  go." 

In  another  letter  this  temperate-spirited  youth  writes : 

"I  would  like  to  mention  tv/o  or  three  things  which  I  think 
might  have  helped  me  if  I  had  known  to  start  with.  Soon  after 
reaching  camp  I  sent  my  non-combatant  certificate  to  the  division 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  93 

commander  (having  been  told  by  the  sergeant  that  he  could  not 
see  him)  also  part  of  the  ruling  in  regard  to  C.  O.'s.  Later  on  I 
wrote  him  a  letter  stating  my  case,  what  I  was  willing  to  do,  etc. 
These  I  sent  by  mail  but  never  heard  from  them.  An  officer  told 
me  to-day  that  the  commander  likely  never  saw  them,  and  that 
they  should  have  been  sent  up  through  the  officers. 

"Another  place  where  I  think  I  have  missed  it  was  when  sent 
to  a  new  company  I  should  have  always  obtained  an  interview 
with  the  company  commander,  rather  than  an  inferior  officer, 
told  him  what  I  felt  that  I  could  do  or  could  not  do  (being  very 
sure  of  what  that  would  be)  and  then  stick  right  to  it.  They 
have  been  very  persistent  in  trying  to  get  me  to  soldier.  I  was  in 
the  stockade  nearly  three  weeks,  had  a  trial  and  was  turned  out. 
Am  under  guard  again  now  for  refusing  to  go  to  rifle  range 
with  pack,  etc.  May  be  sent  to  prison  ^his  trip  as  a  number  of 
C.  O.'s  have  been  from  here." 

To  another  friend  he  writes  of  the  same  incident : 

"I  refused  to  carry  a  rifle  to  the  target-field  this  p.  M.  also  to 
put  on  the  khaki  uniform,  and  received  quite  a  beating.  An 
officer  put  the  clothes  on  me,  but  I  did  not  go  out  with  the 
gun.  I  am  rather  a  bad-looking  specimen  about  the  face  this 
evening. 

"I  earnestly  desire  I  may  not  falter  to  the  weakening  of  the 
cause.  I  do  not  want  my  parents  to  know  how  I  have  been  used 
until  the  battle  is  over." 

'^What  I  could  or  could  not  do — being  very  sure  of  what 
that  would  he — /^  and  ''I  earnestly  desire  I  may  not  falter 
to  the  weakening  of  the  cause" — this  is  the  spirit  of  quiet 
determination,  without  any  self-conscious  martyrdom  or 
sense  of  priggishness  that  inspired  these  young  Quakers 
alike  in  their  religious  resistance  to  the  force  of  military- 
authority  and  in  their  service  of  the  war-ridden  French 
in  the  reconstruction  work. 


94  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

The  story  of  W.  R.  at  Camp  Dodge,  presents  the  same 
case  from  a  slightly  different  angle.     Says  W.  R. : 

"I  had  a  written  statement  with  me  when  I  went  to  camp  but 
did  not  know  just  how  to  present  it.  I  still  had  it  when  I  reached 
the  barracks  so  I  mailed  it  from  there  to  the  Camp  Commander 
right  away. 

"I  do  not  feel  as  though  it  is  right  for  me  to  do  any  military 
service.  They  started  out  the  next  morning  as  if  they  expected 
me  to  go  along  like  the  rest.  When  we  were  taken  upstairs  the 
officer  started  to  tell  us  things  about  the  army.  He  said  we  must 
take  our  hats  off.  I  did  not  feel  that  it  was  right  to  take  mine 
off  to  one  man  more  than  another,  so  I  was  taken,  I  think  to  the 
Company  Commander  who  told  me  I  was  wrong  and  asked 
questions  about  our  Society.  I  also  showed  him  my  noncom- 
batant  card,  certificate  of  membership  (in  the  Society  of  Friends) 
and  Secretary  Baker's  order.  Then  I  was  brought  to  the  guard 
house  where  I  am  yet. 

"I  was  treated  a  little  rough  yesterday,  but  last  evening  a 
camp  chaplain,  I  think  he  said  he  was,  seeing  my  lip  swollen, 
took  me  into  the  Officer  of  the  Guard's  room  and  had  a  talk  with 
me.  He  talked  very  reasonable,  and  seemed  to  think  I  ought  to 
be  handled  according  to  law,  but  not  to  be  abused. 

"Several  of  the  men  have  talked  to  me  and  said  they  were  sorry 
for  me  and  that  I  had  better  change  my  mind  and  be  a  man  and 
I  would  feel  better. 

"But  I  feel  like  sticking  to  my  convictions.  The  longer  I  am 
here  the  worse  war  seems  to  me." 

W.  R.'s  case  soon  became  aggravated  because  his  con- 
science v^as  against  saluting  officers.  He  was  the  only 
conscientious  objector  in  his  group  whose  conscience  was 
quite  so  stiff  on  that  detail,  and  he  was  very  naturally  a 
marked  man  by  the  officers,  accused  of  discourtesy,  insub- 
ordination, sullenness,  and  what  not,  court-martialed  and 
sentenced  to  three  months '  hard  labor.    To  labor  under  mill- 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  95 

tary  orders  was  to  become  part  of  the  military  machine, 
especially  as  fatigue  duties  and  extra  drills  were  part  of 
the  camp  method  of  making  even  the  punishment  meted 
out  to  the  men  conduce  to  their  intensive  military  training. 
Therefore  W.  R.  refused  to  "labor,"  and  was  placed  in  the 
guard  house  to  work  out  his  sentence  in  solitary  confine- 
ment. This  meant  being  kept  under  a  special  guard  in 
one  corner  of  the  guard  house,  and  not  allowed  to  commu- 
nicate with  the  others  in  any  way.  He  ate  when  the  others 
had  finished  eating,  and  for  part  of  the  time  was  only 
allowed  two  meals  a  day.  He  got  no  exercise  at  all.  His 
mail  was  interfered  with,  sometimes  stopped,  and  always 
censored.  Relatives  and  friends  who  came  to  visit  him 
were  usually  not  allowed  to  see  him  at  all.  When  his 
father  obtained  that  privilege,  it  was  only  to  be  allowed 
to  hold  a  fifteen  minutes'  talk  with  his  son  from  out- 
side the  :uard  house  door,  while  the  guard  kept  W.  R. 
inside. 

A  Friend  who  finally  got  a  permit  to  see  the  conscien- 
tious objectors  who  were  in  the  guard  house  at  one  time, 
to  the  number  of  about  fifteen,  reported: 

"W.  R.  showed  a  beautiful  spirit  but  was  very  broken, 
and  could  hardly  talk  much  of  the  time." 

The  efforts  of  friends  outside  mitigated  somewhat 
towards  the  end  of  his  imprisonment  the  rigors  of  his 
treatment,  ancT  he  was  allowed  to  walk  to  and  from  meals, 
which  afforded  him  a  minimum  of  fresh  air  and  exercise 
and  a  little  change,  though  he  was  still  not  allowed  to 
speak  to  any  one. 

As  a  little  sideliiiht  upon  the  earnest  conscientious- 
ness of  this  young  man,  and  the  puzzling  problem  he  pre- 
sented to  his  superiors,  unaccustomed  to  the  scrupulousness 
of  a  sensitive  conscience,  it  is  worthv  of  remark  that  on 


96  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

at  least  one  occasion  when  he  failed  to  salute  an  officer 
he  was  dragged  up  and  made  to  stand  at  attention  for 
throe  hours.  He  consented  to  do  this  because,  as  he  says, 
it  was  for  a  punishment  and  not  for  respect  to  a  military 
order  which  seemed  to  him  contrary  to  Christianity.  The 
favorite  punishment  of  shovelling  and  carrying  loads  of 
sand  and  dirt,  to  wear  down  the  recalcitrant  recruit  by 
exhaustion,  he  also  consented  to,  for  the  same  reason. 

These  cases  are  fairly  typical  of  the  behavior  and  treat- 
ment of  the  out-and-outer,  the  various  penalties  including 
stoppage  of  mail,  both  incoming  and  outgoing,  deprivation 
of  personal  possessions,  ridicule,  bullying,  wearying  and  un- 
ceasing argument,  coupled  with  threats  of  shooting  or  im- 
prisonment, attempts  of  every  kind  to  trip  them  and  **get 
them  in  bad"  (as  they  expressed  it),  starvation — one  man 
was  kept  for  sixteen  consecutive  meals  on  bread  and 
water, — and  various  ways  of  wearing  a  man  down  by 
physical  weariness, — prolonged  standing,  carrying  heavy 
weights,  staggering  up  and  down  earth  hills  with  bur- 
dens, throwing  men  in  garbage  wagons,  etc.,  the  military 
machine  trying  every  means,  physical  and  mental,  to  bring 
the  objectors  to  submission. 

Camps  in  which  Quakers  (as  well  as  Mennonite  and  other 
C.  O.'s)  were  present  in  the  course  of  the  draft  were: 
Camp  Benjamin  Harrison,  Camp  Custer,  Camp  Cody, 
Camp  Devens,  Camp  Dix,  Camp  Dodge,  Camp  Du  Pont, 
Camp  Flagler,  Camp  Funston,  Camp  Gordon,  Camp  Grant, 
Camp  Hancock,  Camp  Forrest,  Camp  Fremont,  Camp 
Jackson,  Camp  Jessup,  Camp  Kearney,  Fort  Leavenworth, 
Camp  Lee,  Camp  Lewis,  Camp  Meade,  Camp  Macarthur, 
Fort  Mcdowell,  Camp  Merritt,  Camp  Mills,  Fort  Ogle- 
thorpe, Camp  Pike,  Camp  Raritan,  Camp  Sever,  Camp 
Shelley,    Camp    Sherman,    Camp    Taylor,    Fort    Thomas, 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  97 

Camp  Travis,  Camp  Upton,  Camp  Wadsworth,  Camp 
Williams. 

The  Service  Committee,  seeing  the  important  work  that 
would  be  called  for  in  connection  with  the  Friends  in  the 
camps,  appointed  F.  Algernon  Evans  secretary  of  this 
branch  of  work.  He  carried  on  extensive  correspondence 
with  the  drafted  men  and  gave  them  a  large  amount  of 
assistance,  of  the  sort  that  could  be  rendered  from  a  dis- 
tant center.  It  seemed  necessary  also  to  have  some  way 
of  getting  closer  to  the  men  who  were  carrying  on  their 
lonely  struggle,  and  for  this  reason  Paul  J.  Furnas  was 
appointed  field  secretary.  He  visited  the  camps  through- 
out the  countr}^  and  gave  the  men  much  personal  help  and 
refreshment  in  their  hour  of  testing. 

His  method  was  on  arriving  at  a  camp  to  obtain  an  in- 
terview with  the  commanding  officer  and  state  his  creden- 
tials and  ask  for  any  information  that  the  officer  himself 
could  furnish  as  to  the  conduct  and  treatment  of  C.  O.'s  in 
that  camp.  He  would  also  ask  permission  to  see  the 
members  of  the  Society  of  Friends  that  might  be  in  the 
camp.  These  direct,  open  and  above-board  methods 
usually  resulted  in  friendly  relations  being  established 
with  the  commanding  officer,  especially  as  Paul  Furnas 
asked  for  any  directions  as  to  conduct  that  the  commanding 
officer  might  desire  to  give  him. 

He  was  then  usually  permitted  to  see  the  Friends  who 
were  in  camp,  and  was  able  to  see  and  hear  for  himself  what 
their  difficulties  were.  After  this  he  would  see  the  com- 
manding officer  again  and  report,  and  would  go  over  care- 
fully the  rulings  of  Secretary  Baker  with  regard  to  the 
segregation  and  treatment  of  C.  O.'s.  As  a  general  rule 
these  recommendations  had  escaped  the  notice  of  the  com- 
manding officer,  and  he  was  often  grateful  for  the  sugges- 


98  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

tion  as  to  how  to  deal  with  a  problem  that  had  become 
very  tiresome  to  him. 

Many  of  the  yearly  meetings  had  draft  committees  to 
look  after  their  men  and  much  local  service  was  rendered 
in  the  camps  by  members  of  these  committees.  In  several 
camps  religious  meetings  were  held  for  the  Friends  and 
for  other  C.  O.'s  who  were  interested,  and  for  the  most 
part  the  camp  officers  made  the  way  easy  for  visits  and 
for  personal  intercourse,  though  in  the  later  periods  of 
camp  life  the  regulations  concerning  the  visits  of  those 
who  were  not  recognized  chaplains  became  more  strict. 

When  Friends  and  other  C.  O.'s  were  segregated,  they 
were  provided  with  the  necessities  of  life  and  daily  rations 
of  raw  food,  and  did  their  own  cooking,  looked  after  their 
quarters,  did  their  own  laundry,  and  in  every  way  were 
as  independent  of  the  camp  organization  as  possible.  This 
entailed  a  good  deal  of  extra  ''roughing  it,"  but  was  a 
great  improvement  on  any  other  plan,  as  the  C.  O.'s  were 
inevitably  in  the  awkward  position,  though  refusing  pay, 
of  being  fed  and  ''housed"  at  the  expense  of  the  govern- 
ment willy  nilly,  and  the  segregation  into  a  self-serving  com- 
munity diminished  their  obligation  to  the  minimum.  It 
also  provided  them  with  much-longed-for  occupation. 
Wearisome  enough  it  was  to  be  employed  on  such  compara- 
tively useless  labor  when  the  farms  were  crying  out  for 
man-power  to  produce  food  and  France  was  needing  con- 
secrated labor  for  the  comfort  of  the  peasantry  and  the 
reestablishment  of  their  lives.  And  the  efforts  of  the  Ser- 
vice Committee  by  no  means  ceased  as  they  succeeded  in 
getting  the  men  segregated  in  the  various  camps. 

By  an  order  of  the  President  issued  November  8th,  1917, 
a  new  selective  service  regulation  was  put  into  operation. 
By  this  order  all  previous  exemptions  were  revoked.    An 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  99 

extensive  questionnaire  had  to  be  answered  by  every  man 
of  military  age  and  by  this  new  plan  any  American  mem- 
ber of  our  unit  in  France  might  be  called  home  for  service 
under  the  draft.  This  raised  a  multitude  of  new  problems. 
To  make  matters  still  more  difficult  the  President's  long- 
delayed  ruling  upon  what  should  constitute  ''non-combat- 
ant service"  under  the  Draft  Act  was  issued  March  20th, 
1918,  and  failed  to  recognize  the  Friends'  objection  to  any 
form  of  service  under  the  military  system. 

The  President's  executive  order  was  as  follows: 

I  hereby  declare  that  the  following  military  service  is  non- 
combatant  service: 

l.-a.  Service  in  the  Medical  Corps  wherever  performed.  This 
includes  service  in  the  sanitary  detachments  attached  to  combat- 
ant units  at  the  front;  service  in  the  divisional  sanitary  trains 
composed  of  ambulance  companies  and  field  hospital  companies, 
on  the  line  of  communications,  at  the  base  in  France,  and  with  the 
troops  and  at  hospitals  in  the  United  States;  also  the  service  of 
supply  and  repair  in  the  Medical  Department. 

b.  Any  service  in  the  Quartermaster  Corps  in  the  United 
States  may  be  treated  as  noncombatant.  Also,  in  rear  of  zone 
of  operations,  service  in  the  following:  stevedore  companies, 
labor  companies,  remount  depots,  veterinaiy  hospitals,  supply 
depots,  bakery  companies,  the  subsistence  service,  the  bathing 
service,  the  laundrv^  service,  the  salvage  service,  the  clothing  ren- 
ovation service,  the  shoe  repair  service,  the  transportation  repair 
service,  and  motor-truck  companies. 

c.  Any  engineer  service  in  the  United  States  may  be  treated 
as  noncombatant  service.  Also,  in  rear  of  zone  of  operations, 
service  as  follows:  railroad  building,  operation  and  repair;  road 
building  and  repair;  construction  of  rear  line  fortifications,  aux- 
iliary defenses,  etc.,  construction  of  docks,  wharves,  storehouses 
and  of  such  cantonments  as  may  be  built  by  the  Corps  of  Engi- 
neers; topographical  work;  camouflage;  map  reproduction;  sup- 


100  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

ply  depot  service;  repair  service;  hydraulic  service;  and  forestry 
service. 

2.-Persons  ordered  to  report  for  military  sei-vice  under  the 
above  Act  who  have  (a)  been  certified  by  their  Local  Boards  to 
be  members  of  a  religious  sect  or  organization  as  defined  in 
section  4  of  said  act;  or  (b)  who  object  to  participating  in  war 
because  of  conscientious  scruples  but  have  failed  to  receive  cer- 
tificates as  members  of  a  religious  sect  or  organization  from  their 
Local  Board,  will  be  assigned  to  noncombatant  military  service 
as  defined  in  paragraph  1  to  the  extent  that  such  persons  are  able 
to  accept  service  as  aforesaid  without  violation  of  the  religious 
or  other  conscientious  scruples  by  them  in  good  faith  entertained. 
Upon  the  promulgation  of  this  order  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  each 
Division,  Camp,  or  Post  Commander,  through  a  tactful  and  con- 
siderate officer,  to  present  to  all  such  persons  the  provisions  hereof 
with  adequate  explanation  of  the  character  of  noncombatant  ser- 
vice herein  defined,  and  upon  such  explanations  to  secure  accep- 
tances of  assignment  to  the  several  kinds  of  noncombatant  service 
above  enumerated;  and  whenever  any  person  is  assigned  to  non- 
combatant  service  by  reason  of  his  religious  or  other  conscientious 
scruples,  he  shall  be  given  a  certificate  stating  the  assignment  and 
reason  therefor,  and  such  certificate  shall  thereafter  be  respected 
as  preventing  the  transfer  of  such  persons  from  such  noncombat- 
ant to  combatant  service  by  any  Division,  Camp,  Post,  or  other 
Commander  under  whom  said  person  may  thereafter  be  called  to 
serve,  but  such  certificate  shall  not  prevent  the  assignment  of  such 
person  to  some  other  form  of  noncombatant  service  with  his  own 
consent.  So  far  as  may  be  found  feasible  by  each  Division, 
Campj  or  Post  Commander,  future  assignments  of  such  persons 
to  noncombatant  military  service  will  be  restricted  to  the  several 
detachments  and  units  of  the  Medical  Department  in  the  absence 
of  a  request  for  assignment  to  some  other  branch  of  noncombatant 
service  as  defined  in  paragraph  1  hereof. 

3.-0n  the  first  day  of  April,  and  thereafter  monthly,  each 
Division,  Camp,  or  Post  Commander  shall  report  to  the  Adjutant 
General  of  the  Army,  for  the  information  of  the  Chief  of  Staff 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  101 

and  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  names  of  all  persons  under  their 
respective  commands  who  profess  religious  or  other  conscientious 
scruples  as  above  described  and  who  have  been  unwilling  to 
accept,  by  reason  of  such  scruples,  assignment  to  noncombatant 
military  service  as  above  defined,  and  as  to  each  such  person  so 
reported  a  brief,  comprehensive  statement  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  objection  to  the  acceptance  of  such  noncombatant  military 
service  entertained.  The  Secretary  of  War  will  from  time  to 
time  classify  the  persons  so  reported  and  give  further  directions 
as  to  the  disposition  of  them.  Pending  such  directions  from  the 
Secretary  of  War,  all  such  persons  not  accepting  assignment  to 
noncombatant  service  shall  be  segregated  as  far  as  practicable 
and  placed  under  the  command  of  a  specially  qualified  officer 
of  tact  and  judgment,  who  will  be  instructed  to  impose  no  punitive 
hardship  of  any  knid  upon  them,  but  not  to  allow  their  objections 
to  be  made  the  basis  of  any  favor  or  consideration  beyond  exemp- 
tion from  military  service  which  is  not  extended  to  any  other  sol- 
dier in  the  service  of  the  United  States. 

4.-With  a  view  to  maintaining  discipline,  it  is  pointed  out  that 
the  discretion  of  courts-martial,  so  far  as  any  shall  be  ordered 
to  deal  with  the  cases  of  persons  who  fail  or  refuse  to  comply 
with  lawful  orders  by  reason  of  alleged  religious  or  other  con- 
scientious scruples,  should  be  exercised,  if  feasible,  so  as  to  secure 
uniformity  of  penalties  in  the  imposition  of  sentences  under 
Articles  of  War  64  and  65,  for  the  wilful  disobedience  of  a 
lawful  order  or  command.  It  will  be  recognized  that  sentences 
imposed  by  such  courts-martial,  when  not  otherwise  described 
by  law,  shall  prescribe  confinement  in  the  United  States  Disciplin- 
ary Barracks  or  elsewhere  as  the  Secretary  of  War  or  the  re- 
viewing authority  may  direct,  but  not  in  a  penitentiary;  but  this 
shall  not  apply  to  the  cases  of  men  who  desert  either  before 
reporting  for  duty  to  the  military  authorities  or  subsequently 
thereto. 

5.-The  Secretary  of  War  will  revise  the  sentences  and  findings 
of  courts-martial  heretofore  held  of  persons  who  come  within 
any  of  the  classes  herein  described,  and  bring  to  the  attention  of 


102  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

the  President  for  remedy,  if  any  be  needed,  sentences  and  judg- 
ments found  at  variance  with  provisions  hereof. 

WooDROw  Wilson. 
The  White  House, 
20  March,  1918. 

This  ruling  made  the  absolutist  C.  O.'s  position  much 
more  difficult,  while  it  tended  to  draw  those  who  did  not 
think  deeply  over  the  issues  into  forms  of  army  service. 
The  large  proportion,  however,  of  the  Friends  in  camps 
remained  unmoved  by  the  ruling  and  stood  out  as  before 
against  all  complicity  with  the  military  system.  A  few 
more  specimen  cases  will  further  illustrate  the  mind  of  the 
boys  and  the  difficulties  which  confronted  them. 

Here  is  a  little  light  on  Camp  Jackson.  A  man,  suc- 
ceeding in  getting  an  uncensored  letter  through,  writes : 

"We  are  segTegated  to  a  certain  extent.  We  occupy  about 
nine  or  ten  tents  in  a  row  and  at  the  end  of  our  tents  is  our  mess- 
hall,  where  we  cook,  eat,  and  wash  mess  kits,  etc.,  by  ourselves. 
But  our  row  of  tents  is  only  about  30  to  35  feet  away  from  a 
row  that  is  occupied  by  soldiers,  only  a  street  between  that  comes 
to  our  tent-stake.  This  street  is  used  by  the  soldiers,  we  not  being 
allowed  on  that  street.  Our  touts  face  the  other  way,  and  in 
front  of  them  is  a  street  about  25  feet  wide  and  we  are  not 
allowed  to  get  off  that  street  only  to  go  to  the  mess  hall  and  our 
toilet.  .  .  . 

"We  are  not  allowed  to  buy  a  paper,  and  our  mail  is  delayed. 
What  comes  in  is  often  from  seven  to  fourteen  days  old. 

"We  are  guarded  as  if  we  were  criminals,  three  soldiers  with 
rifles  being  on  guard  over  us  night  and  day.  They  work  in 
shifts,  three  at  a  time.  .  .  . 

"I  can  right  now  touch  a  boy  that  was  kicked  until  his  legs  were 
blue  from  just  below  the  knee  to  the  ankle,  and  was  taken  by  the 
collar  twice  and  violently  jerked  to  the  floor  scrubbing  the  blood 
out  of  his  face  and  almost  choked  to  death.     His  face  was  bruised 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  103 

until  his  right  eye  was  completely  swelled  together.  Here  lest  I 
forget  it  I  want  to  say  that  the  fellow  that  abused  him  went  crazy 
and  had  to  be  discharged.  They  say  while  he  was  crazy  he  would 
pray  an  hour  and  a  half  some  nights  and  cry  and  call  for  that 
Quaker  boy  that  he  wanted  to  talk  to  him  again. 

"Another  fellow  had  his  two  upper  front  teeth  knocked  out, 
and  several  have  been  put  in  the  guard  house  for  several  days  and 
kept  on  bread  and  water." 

A  boy  in  the  training  detachment  of  Indianapolis,  Ind., 
was  set  to  pull  weeds  on  the  camp  ground,  including  poison 
ivy.  The  boy,  very  anxious  not  to  be  recalcitrant  when 
his  conscientious  stand  made  him  already  so  unable  to  obey 
most  orders,  begged  to  be  allowed  to  leave  the  poison  ivy 
but  was  ordered  by  his  guard  to  pull  it.  He  obeyed,  and 
was  badly  poisoned,  but  was  kept  so  ceaselessly  busy,  and 
without  a  moment  of  respite  or  privacy — being  constantly 
under  guard — that  he  was  unable  to  treat  his  poisoned 
body  and  relieve  himself. 

At  Camp  Funston  some  of  the  men  received  very  fair 
treatment.  J.  T.  B.  refused  to  put  on  the  uniform  or  drill, 
and  was  excused  from  both.  He  consented,  unofficially,  to 
make  himself  useful  by  cleaning  the  officers'  tents. 
''This,"  he  remarks,  ''gave  me  a  splendid  chance  to  get 
acquainted  with  the  officers,  and  I  had  quite  a  talk  with 
the  captain  one  day.  I  am  willing  to  do  this  work  as  I 
would  not  wish  to  be  idle.  And  then  it  dispels  the  idea 
that  we  do  not  wish  to  do  anything." 

Other  camps  were  more  severe.  L.  E.  M.  of  Waynes- 
ville,  Ohio,  was  tried  at  Camp  Greenleaf  for  refusing 
to  wear  uniform  or  do  fatigue  duty,  and  sentenced  to  ten 
years. 

U.  DeR.  was  tried  at  Fort  Riley  for  refusing  any  kind  of 
noncombatant  service  under  military  control,  and  the  court- 


104  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

martial  sentenced  him  to  imprisonment  for  life,  afterwards 
commuted  by  General  AVood  to  twenty-five  years. 

G.  L.  was  sentenced  for  thirty  years  from  Camp  Dodge. 
He  was  taken  to  Fort  Leavenworth  on  December  4th. 
He  refused  to  work  at  the  prison,  and  was  placed  in  soli- 
tary confinement  in  the  "hole"  until  December  26th.  For 
the  first  two  weeks  he  was  given  nothing  but  bread  and 
water  to  eat.  For  the  first  seven  days  he  was  chained  to  the 
door  of  his  cell  for  nine  hours  a  day.  His  arms  were  thrust 
through  the  bars,  and  handcuffed  on  the  outside.  His  bed 
at  first  consisted  of  three  boards  and  three  blankets.  He 
was  allowed  to  write  only  one  letter  every  two  weeks. 

It  is  evident  by  these  few  examples  that  the  conditions 
under  which  the  CO.  found  himself  differed  very  greatly 
according  to  the  character  of  the  men  in  authority  in  the 
camps,  and  with  the  personal  tact  and  power  of  self-ex- 
pression of  the  C.  0. 

An  inarticulate  man,  slow  of  speech  and  thought,  was 
set  down  as  sullen  by  impatient  officers.  A  man  who  was 
too  ready  to  talk  was  recalcitrant  and  defiant. 

At  Camp  Funston  the  C.  0.  was  able  to  satisfy  his  con- 
science and  keep  on  good  terms  with  the  powers  that  were 
by  doing  odd  cleaning  jobs  without  uniform. 

At  Camp  Fort  Lee  the  C.  O.  asked  in  vain  for  any  work 
of  a  non-military  nature  that  would  not  necessitate  putting 
on  the  uniform. 

The  life  of  inaction,  of  loafing  in  segregated  quarters  or 
in  the  guard  house,  that  was  imposed  on  the  C.  0.  in 
many  camps  was  the  most  testing  that  could  be  imposed 
on  healthy,  active  young  men.  Many  who  found  their 
strength  not  enough  for  the  trial,  and  were  driven  into 
compromise,  were  broken  by  the  idleness.  They  could 
not  stand  it. 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  105 

But  the  large  majority  who  began  by  an  uncompro- 
mising, decided  line,  were  strengthened  to  maintain  it  to 
the  end.  No  doubt  the  problem  would  have  been  simpli- 
fied, both  for  the  C.  0.  and  the  military,  if  all  C.  O.s  had 
made  a  uniform  sta-nd,  but  the  corollary  of  freedom  of 
conscience  is  a  final  farewell  to  uniformity.  Every  man  fol- 
lowed the  light  that  he  saw,  and  one's  perception  of 
light  is  limited  by  one's  clearness  of  vision.  A  luminous 
and  logical  conscience  is  not  the  growth  of  a  day  but  of 
a  lifetime.  Previous  habits  of  thought,  previous  knowledge 
of  God,  former  integrity  or  carelessness  of  life  entered  into 
each  man 's  conception  of  his  duty  in  the  crisis. 

Some  of  the  men  who  went  to  camp  accepted  the  uniform, 
and  presently  accepted  some  form  of  noncombatant  service. 
In  some  cases  they  did  this  more  or  less  deliberately.  It 
was,  of  course,  the  line  of  least  resistance. 

Others  accepted  it  through  muddled  thinking,  promoted 
by  false  or  misleading  information  on  the  part  of  the  local 
authorities.  As  an  example  of  this,  one  may  quote  from  a 
letter  of  C.  H.  one  of  the  staunch  C.  O.'s  at  Camp  Funston. 

"6,  29,  18.  This  evening  several  new  objectors  have  come  into 
camp  here,  just  from  the  receiving  station.  This  is  something 
new,  as  most  of  us  put  in  from  two  weeks  to  eight  months  before 
being  segregated.  I  am  told  that  these  men  have  all  signed  up 
for  noncombatant  military  service.  In  fact  the  pressure  to  do 
so  is  being  increased.  One  fellow  told  me  the  officers  assured  him 
that  all  the  C.  O.'s  had  done  so.  .  .  .  AYhile  I  was  writing  the 
above  H.  H.  walked  in.  He  is  one  of  the  new  arrivals,  and  said 
he  signed  an  accei)tance  of  base  hospital  work.  The  officers  per- 
suaded him  that  he  could  change  his  decision  in  this  matter  later 
if  he  wished.     I  feel  sure  he  has  been  duped." 

Of  those  who,  on  coming  to  camps  not  decided  exactly 
where  to  draw  the  line,  were  persuaded  into  acceptance  of 


106  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

apparently  innocuous  soldiering,  the  majority  took  one  or 
other  of  the  following  lines  of  submission :  Kitchen  work, 
hospital  work — or  other  work  in  the  Army  Ambulance 
Corps, — work  in  the  Quartermaster  Corps,  the  Engineer 
Corps,  or  other  similar  work  which  would  not,  except  in 
emergency,  involve  actual  fighting.  Some  accepted  the 
uniform  right  away,  others  would  at  first  only  wear  part — 
one  man  drew  the  line  at  putting  on  the  cap — most  drilled, 
but  some  refused  to  carry  weapons. 

Some  remained  satisfied  with  their  position,  but  others 
were  uneasy  in  their  consciences,  and  later  tried  to  take  up 
a  more  uncompromising  stand.  The  difficulty  which  beset 
them  may  be  imagined.  It  was  practically  impossible  for 
them  to  convince  any  authorities  of  their  sincerity.  The 
military  authorities  became  great  sticklers  for  unswerving 
erectness  of  conscience,  and  were  swift  to  point  out  to  an 
unfortunate  waverer  the  inconsistencies  in  his  conduct, 
even  when  these  had  been  partly  due  to  his  too  great  reli- 
ance upon  their  assurances. 

For  instance,  one  man  writes :  "  I  presented  a  card  from 
the  local  board  to  the  captain,  he  stated  that  the  Friends 
that  were  drafted  now  were  not  any  more  than  any  one  else, 
that  the  President  was  sending  them  to  prison. ' ' 

And  many  simple-minded,  honest  lads,  unaccustomed  to 
sophistry  and  subtle  dealing,  were  persuaded  into  taking 
kitchen  and  orderly  work  by  being  told  that  it  ''sorter  paid 
for  their  board. ' '  Nevertheless  their  having  accepted  such 
work  made  it  harder  for  them  later  to  establish  their 
position  as  sincere  conscientious  objectors. 

The  difficulties  occasioned  by  taking  a  false  step  are 
illustrated  by  the  following  experiences  of  two  men  in 
Camp  Flagler. 

M.  and  C.  two  Quaker  boys  drafted  to  Fort  Flagler  in 


THE  KEEPERS  OF  THE  FAITH  107 

the  State  of  Washington  refused  to  take  the  military  oath 
or  to  put  on  the  uniform,  and  were  at  once  put  in  the  guard 
house  upon  their  arrival  in  camp.  A  Friend  who  investi- 
gated the  case  writes: 

*  'Form  174  was  ignored.  I  had  several  talks  with  officers, 
then  we  were  brought  before  the  major  and  told  that  Presi- 
dent Wilson  had  ordered  C.  0.  's  to  do  odd  jobs  in  camps — 
in  fact  everything  but  bear  arms.  They  were  told  if  they 
would  take  the  oath  all  would  be  well.  That  this  was  their 
last  chance.  If  they  did  not  obey  now  they  would  be 
court-martialed.  The  boys  refused  to  take  the  oath,  and 
were  returned  to  the  guard  house.  .  .  .  Money  confis- 
cated. C.  threatened  with  seven  years'  confinement.  The 
only  charges  are  refusal  to  act  contrary  to  Form  174  which 
each  has.  ..." 

Another  Friend  went  to  see  the  hoys  and  persuaded  them 
to  take  the  affirmation  which  the  officers  insisted  upon. 
This  they  finally  did  under  his  influence,  but  against  their 
own  judgment.  They  were  promised  that  this  action  would 
in  no  way  prejudice  their  case  when  the  president  gave  his 
ruling. 

Shortly,  however,  afterwards  their  refusal  to  drill  or  to 
put  on  the  uniform  caused  C.  and  M.  to  be  put  into  the 
guard  house,  this  time  they  were  separated  and  were  not  al- 
lowed to  communicate  with  any  one.  They  were  ordered  to 
do  various  military  fatigue  duties,  and  the  uniform  put  on 
M.  by  force.  The  latter,  who  was  a  large  fellow,  fully  six 
feet  tall,  was  confined  in  a  cell  six  feet  by  four.  Their  mail 
was  censored,  delayed,  and  sometimes  suppressed.  Says 
M.  in  a  letter  which  he  succeeded  in  getting  out  at  this 
time: 

"R.  C.  and  I  are  silent  room  orderlies,  sweep  out,  etc., 
and  go  out  one  at  a  time  for  half-hour  walks  in  the  eve- 


108  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

ning.  .  .  .  "We  eat  in  the  guard  house  now ;  R.  C.  at  one 
end  of  the  table,  and  I  at  the  other.  ..." 

The  Friends  Service  Committee  took  up  these  cases 
with  the  authorities  at  Washington,  and  the  officers  at 
Camp  Flagler  next  raised  doubts  as  to  whether  M.  and  C. 
were  really  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  Affidavits 
proving  their  membership  and  good  standing  in  the 
Society  were  at  once  obtained  and  also  their  certificates 
of  membership.  But  there  were  many  delays.  The  reason 
for  the  doubt  cast  upon  their  membership  by  the  district 
commander  was  that  he  stated  that  he  did  not  understand 
how  these  men,  if  they  were  Quakers,  could  have  been 
inducted  into  the  military  service,  which  local  Friends 
interpreted  as  referring  to  their  having  taken  the  oath  i.e. 
by  affirmation. 

M.  ^s  court-martial  was  now  imminent,  the  charges  being 
that  he  had  disobeyed  orders,  was  guilty  of  mutiny,  and 
of  not  wearing  uniform.  A  ten  years'  sentence  was  threat- 
ened. M.'s  health  was  affected  by  the  prolonged  confine- 
ment, and  his  throat  gave  him  much  trouble. 

They  were  kept  in  solitary  confinement  for  three  months, 
but  finally  through  much  effort  on  the  part  of  Paul  Furnas, 
under  the  system  of  furlough,  to  be  described  in  the  next 
chapter,  they  were  turned  over  to  our  committee  and  were 
sent  to  France. 


CHAPTER  IX 

FURLOUGHED   FOR   RECONSTRUCTION 

The  men  whose  story  has  been  all  too  briefly  told  in  the 
previous  chapter,  by  their  faith  and  their  readiness  to 
suffer  for  it,  were  in  the  true  Quaker  ^'apostolic  succes- 
sion." They  took  their  stand  on  a  principle  which  seemed 
to  them  absolutely  true  and  sound,  and  they  resolved  to 
hold  that  truth  unwaveringly  whatever  the  cost  might  be. 
It  was  impossible  for  any  one  to  call  them  "cowards"  since 
their  bearing  and  spirit  "bewrayed"  them  as  brave  and 
unafraid,  and  belonging  in  the  Galilean  fellowship. 

The  War  Department  was  honestly  disposed  to  have 
them  properly  treated  while  in  camp  and  also  desirous  of 
finding  some  just  solution  of  their  anomalous  problem. 
There  were,  however,  two  grave  difficulties  which  made  it 
extremely  hard  to  hit  upon  a  satisfactory  solution.  One 
difficulty  was  that  the  officials  who  had  the  matter  im- 
mediately in  hand  did  not  comprehend  the  meaning  of 
conscience.  They  were  inclined  to  consider  the  state  of 
mind  of  the  C.  0.  to  be  one  either  of  stubbornness  or  of 
stupidity,  or  of  abnormality,  or,  more  likely,  one  of  sham- 
ming. Even  men  who  were  kindly  disposed,  as  were  a 
great  number  of  those  who  were  confronted  with  the  prob- 
lem, did  not  seem  able  to  understand  the  moral  attitude 
of  the  men.  When  the  course  of  the  nation  had  been  once 
settled  and  we  had  officially  decided  to  go  to  war,  to  these 
public  officials  that   act   closed   the   debate.     They   could 

109 


110  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

not  see  how  an  individual  could  venture  to  set  up  his  own 
tribunal  and  go  contrary  to  the  established  line  of  march 
of  the  world  to  which  he  belonged.  It  was  hard  to  be  fair 
to  such  a  freaky  specimen  as  the  C.  0.  seemed  to  be,  and 
patient  with  him. 

But  the  still  graver  difficulty  which  confronted  the  War 
Department  was  the  danger  of  multiplying  the  group  of 
C.  0.  's  by  being  too  lenient  with  the  first  ones  with  whom 
they  had  to  deal.  The  Department  assumed  that  the  mo- 
ment the  rumor  got  abroad  that  C.  O.'s  were  to  have  an 
easy  path  and  that  the  claim  of  conscience  offered  a  way 
to  escape  from  military  service  there  would  be  ''legions" 
of  these  claimants.  This  prudential  attitude  kept  the  De- 
partment from  formulating  any  final  decision.  As  soon  as 
the  second  draft  was  arranged  for  it  became  evident  that 
the  C.  O.'s  in  the  first  draft  could  expect  no  relief  and  no 
decision  in  their  cases.  They  must  be  used,  if  possible, 
to  scare  off  other  persons  who  might  be  inclined  to  imitate 
them.  There  was,  therefore,  no  chance  for  us  to  secure 
any  satisfactory  disposal  of  these  early  cases  until  the 
danger  of  their  influence  upon  other  drafted  men  had 
passed  by. 

While,  therefore,  we  could  not  succeed  during  the  winter 
of  1917-18  in  getting  any  relief  for  the  Friends  who  were 
confined  in  the  barracks,  we  were  busily  engaged  in  work- 
ing out  a  plan  for  keeping  the  members  of  our  unit,  who 
were  already  in  France,  from  being  called  home  for  the 
second  draft.  The  War  Department  which  was  always  in 
sympathy  with  our  work  of  relief  and  reconstruction 
abroad,  saw  how  futile  it  would  be  to  break  up  the  work 
these  men  were  doing,  to  bring  them  back  to  America  for 
the  purpose  of  the  draft,  and  to  send  them  to  the  camps 
to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  C.  O.'s  whom  they  didn't  know 


FURLOUGHED  FOR  RECONSTRUCTION      111 

how  to  dispose  of.  It  was  not  easy,  however,  to  hit  upon 
a  plan  that  would  work  and  would  not  at  the  same  time 
be  inconsistent  with  the  legal  provisions  of  the  draft  and 
the  definite  rulings  of  the  Provost  Marshal.  We  had 
numerous  conferences  on  these  points  with  the  officials  of 
the  Department.  Everything  was  done  that  could  fairly 
be  done  to  extend  the  time  of  the  Friends  overseas,  and  a 
most  favorable  temporary  scheme  was  arranged  through 
the  Provost  Marshal's  office  by  which  each  member  of  the 
Reconstruction  Unit  had  his  "call"  delayed,  while  the  whole 
problem  of  the  disposal  of  ''conscientious  objectors"  was 
awaiting  solution.  This  temporary  delay  enabled  us  to 
keep  the  entire  group  of  workers  in  France  throughout  the 
winter,  though  we  never  knew  when  the  plan  which  was 
only  a  makeshift  might  be  suddenly  upset.  We  were,  of 
course,  all  the  time  working  for  a  permanent  solution  of  the 
situation,  a  solution  of  a  sort  that  would  not  only  insure 
the  stability  of  the  men  abroad  but  that  would  also  release 
the  men  in  camps  for  a  similar  service.  Many  tentative 
plans  were  suggested  but  obviously  no  plan  could  be  finally 
adopted  by  the  Department  until  it  satisfied  the  judgment 
of  a  great  variety  of  persons  concerned,  and  was  felt  to  be 
efficient  and  "safe"  both  from  a  political  point  of  view  and 
especially  from  the  perspective  of  the  newspapers.  One 
scheme  which  met  with  considerable  favor  was  a  plan  to 
turn  over  the  conscientious  objectors,  who  were  believed  to 
be  sincere,  to  a  joint  commission  composed  of  members  of 
the  Society  of  Friends,  the  Mennonites  and  the  Brethren 
(Dunkards).  The  three  religious  societies  were  asked  by 
the  Department  to  choose  and  organize  such  a  commission 
and  have  it  ready  to  act.  The  plan  as  tentatively  arranged 
was  drawn  up  as  follows: 

"The  commission  shall  be  composed  of  at  least  nine  men 


112  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

of  broad  and  understanding  sympathies  to  be  named  by  the 
religious  organizations  whose  principles  are  opposed  to 
war,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  as 
follows:  three  from  the  Societ}^  of  Friends,  three  from  the 
Mennonites,  and  three  from  the  Church  of  the  Brethren,  all 
of  whom  shall  give,  without  compensation  from  the  Gov- 
ernment, faithful  attention  to  the  work  which  naturally 
comes  before  the  commission. 

"Drafted  men  belonging  to  the  above  religious  denom- 
inations, and  others  conscientiously  opposed  to  military 
service  who  may  be  recommended  by  the  Secretary  of  War 
and  approved  by  the  commission,  on  being  referred  by  the 
War  Department  to  said  commission,  shall  be  by  it  organ- 
ized and  employed  in  one  or  other  of  the  civil  pursuits 
entirely  removed  from  military  control,  and  shall  receive 
no  pay  from  the  War  Department  for  such  service : 

' '  First. — Agriculture. 

"Second. — Civil  relief  and  reconstruction  work  abroad. 

"Third. — Forestry  or  other  reclamation  work. 

"Fourth. — In  general  civilian  occupations  recommended 
by  the  Commission  and  approved  by  the  War  Department. 

"It  is  understood  that  said  drafted  men  shall  be  kept 
employed  in  some  useful  pursuit  as  above,  and  that  monthly 
reports  from  said  drafted  men  shall  be  sent  to  the  com- 
mission stating  briefly  the  nature  of  the  work  in  which 
they  are  engaged,  compensation  therefor,  health  of  the  in- 
dividual, and  other  such  matters  as  may  seem  of  interest; 
a  summary  of  these  reports  to  be  forwarded  to  the  War 
Department  at  such  times  as  it  may  direct." 

The  following  persons  were  named  by  the  respective  de- 
nominations to  constitute  the  commission : 


FURLOUGHED  FOR  RECONSTRUCTION      113 

For  the  Friends : 

Rnfiis  ]\I.  Jones,  Haverford,  Pa.,  who  was  made  chair- 
man of  the  commission 

William  B.  Harvey,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

J.  Lawrence  Lippincott,  Riverton,  N.  J. 
For  the  Mennonites : 

J.  S.  Hartveller,  Scottdale,  Pa. 

Silas  :\r.  Grubb,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Peter  X.  Nissley,  Mount  Joy,  Pa. 
For  the  Brethren : 

W.  J.  Swigart,  Iluntino-don,  Pa. 

C.  B.  Bonsack,  New  Windsor,  Md. 

I.  W.  Taylor,  Neffsville,  Pa. 

After  much  consideration,  consultation  and  correspond- 
ence it  did  not  seem  best  to  put  this  plan  into  operation. 
It  was  sure  to  be  open  to  criticism  on  the  part  of  those 
who  wanted  severe  measures  used  toward  these  men,  and 
persons  of  such  attitude  could  hardly  approve  of  turning 
the  C.  0.  's  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of  their  own  friends 
and  people!  The  next  plan,  the  one  which  was  finally 
adopted,  was  a  furlough  system.  In  its  earliest  form  and 
stage  the  furlough-plan  was  put  into  operation  to  use  in 
agricultural  work  the  men  who  could  be  spared  from  the 
camps.  This  gave  the  suggestion  for  the  plan  to  make 
disposition  of  conscientious  objectors.  The  Act  of  Congress 
under  which  furloughs  were  arranged  passed  the  Senate 
Februarj^  5th,  1918  as  follows : 

"AN  ACT 
To  authorize  tlie  Secretary  of  War  to  grant  furloughs  without 
pay  and  allowances  to  enlisted  men  of  the  Anny  of  the  United 
States. 
"Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of 


114  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  when- 
ever during  the  continuance  of  the  present  war  in  the  opinion  of 
the  Secretary  of  War  the  interests  of  the  service  or  the  national 
security  and  defense  render  it  necessary  or  desirable,  The  Sec- 
retary of  War  be,  and  he  hereby  is,  authorized  to  grant  furloughs 
to  enlisted  men  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States  with  or  without 
pay  and  allowances  or  with  partial  pay  and  allowances,  and,  for 
such  periods  as  lie  mny  designate,  to  permit  said  enlisted  men  to 
engage  in  civil  occupations  and  pursuits." 

This  amendment  was  added  in  the  House:  "Provided 
that  such  furloughs  shall  be  granted  only  upon  the  vol- 
untary application  of  such  enlisted  men  under  regulations 
to  be  prescribed  by  the  Secretary  of  War."  This  change 
was  accepted  by  the  Senate  March  9th  and  the  Act  imme- 
diately received  the  President's  signature.  The  War  De- 
partment in  its  interpretation  and  ruling  upon  the  scope 
of  the  furlough  system  decided  that  men  who  were  found 
to  be  sincere  conscientious  objectors  to  war  might  be 
furloughed  either  for  agriculture  in  this  country  or  for 
reconstruction  work  in  France  under  the  American  Friends 
Service  Committee,  the  work  of  our  committee  being  speci- 
fically named  in  the  ruling.  A  board  of  inquiry  of  three 
persons — in  the  first  instance  two  civilians  and  an  army 
officer,  at  a  later  period  all  three  being  civilians — was 
appointed  by  the  Department  to  visit  the  camps,  interview 
the  C.  O.'s  and  decide  upon  the  ''sincerity"  of  their  pro- 
fession.^  The  board  was  composed  of  serious,  high-minded, 
kindly  disposed  men,  who  honestly  endeavored  to  do  the 
impossible,  i.e.  to  decide  after  a  brief  interview  with  the 
men,  who  among  them  was  sincere  and  who  was  insincere. 

1  It  was  originally  planned  to  segregate  all  the  C.  O.'s  at  Fort 
Leavenworth  and  to  have  the  Board  of  Inquiry  do  its  work  there. 


FURLOUGHED  FOR  RECONSTRUCTION   115 

There  were  further  long  delays  before  it  could  be  de- 
cided who  should  have  the  immediate  care  of  the  men 
recommended  for  furlough  by  this  board.  At  first  the 
Department  was  in  favor  of  using  the  Joint  Commission 
mentioned  above,  and  later  of  having  a  single  commis- 
sioner who  should  be  directly  responsible  for  the  men,  our 
commission  being  only  advisory.  While  attending  New 
England  Yearly  Meeting  in  June,  1918,  I  received  the  fol- 
lowing telegram  from  Secretary  Keppel  of  the  War  De- 
partment: "The  Board  of  Inquiry  seems  to  favor  having  a 
single  commissioner  responsible  for  furlough  of  conscien- 
tious objectors  your  committee  [meaning  the  Joint  Com- 
mission] acting  in  an  advisory  capacity  to  such  commis- 
sioner, suggesting  assignments  of  individual  men,  looking 
up  references  of  employers,  etc.,  but  leaving  routine 
operation,  such  as  checking  of  reports,  etc.,  to  commis- 
sioner whom  the  Department  would  hold  responsible  for 
the  smooth  working  of  the  system.  It  is  suggested  that  a 
competent  adjutant  sympathetic  with  the  whole  question 
be  detailed  for  this  purpose.  Do  you  think  that  this  ar- 
rangement if  approved  by  the  Secretary  of  War  would  be 
satisfactory  to  you  and  your  associates?" 

I  replied  that  the  general  plan  would  be  satisfactory^ 
but  that  the  entire  arrangement  would  almost  certainly 
break  down  if  an  adjutant  or  any  military  officer  were 
selected  for  the  position  of  commissioner.  I  pointed  out 
that  the  C.  O.'s  could  not  change  their  attitude  about 
serving  under  the  military  system  and  that  the  success 
of  the  plan  depended  on  its  being  civilian  throughout 
After  much  correspondence  and  personal  discussion  the 
point  was  accepted  and  Professor  R.  C.  McCrea  of  Colum- 
bia University  was  appointed   commissioner,  than  whom 


116  SERVICE  OP  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

no  more  suitable  man  for  this  place  could  have  been  selected. 
As  the  men  furloughed  for  reconstruction  work  in  France 
were  eventually  to  be  under  the  care  of  the  Service  Com- 
mittee it  was  rightlj^  felt  and  decided  that  this  committee 
rather  than  the  Joint  Commission  should  be  responsible 
for  them  and  should  deal  directly  with  the  commissioner, 
or  with  the  officials  of  the  Department,  as  the  case  required. 

Practically  all  the  conscientious  objectors  who  were 
given  the  opportunity  of  accepting  furlough  for  our  service 
abroad  felt  free  to  do  so,  though  a  tiny  few  declined  to 
accept  any  way  out.  Most  of  the  Friends  who  were  seg- 
regated in  the  camps  as  C.  O.'s  had  already  been  accepted 
as  members  of  the  Friends  Unit  and  were  only  waiting 
for  the  chance  to  go  to  France.  The  way  which  was  offered 
seemed  to  them  as  free  of  moral  obstacles  or  compromises 
as  any  which  could  be  devised  in  the  midst  of  a  great  war, 
and  they  seized  the  opportunity  to  show  their  readiness  for 
service  of  a  type  which  conformed  with  their  spiritual  aims. 

Just  as  these  arrangements  were  culminating  Vincent 
D.  Nicholson,  our  executive  secretary,  was  called  in  the 
draft  and  was  unable  to  secure  exemption.  He  had  taken 
an  extremely  able  part  in  the  development  of  every  feature 
of  the  work  and  he  had  borne  a  full  share  of  the  burdens 
and  responsibilities  of  every  undertaking  from  the  day  the 
work  was  organized  to  the  day  he  left  for  camp.  His 
mind  was  keen  and  brilliant.  He  was  quick  to  seize  upon 
a  course  of  action  and  highly  gifted  in  the  power  to  dis- 
cover solutions  of  difficulties.  He  possessed  unusual  moral 
and  spiritual  qualities  of  life.  His  motives  were  pure, 
his  eye  single,  and  his  heart  was  right.  His  life  is  forever 
built  into  the  work  which  the  Service  Committee  has  done 
and  it  seemed  peculiarly  tragic  to  have  him  taken  from 
his  task  at  the  moment  when  the  door  was  opening  for 


FURLOUGHED  FOR  RECONSTRUCTION      117 

a  great  extension  of  the  work  which  he  had  eminently 
helped  to  plan  and  construct.^ 

Wilbur  K.  Thomas  of  Boston  was  at  this  time  giving  two 
months  of  volunteer  service  in  our  office — the  months  of 
July  and  August,  1918.  He  had  already  done  splendid 
service  on  the  Service  Committee  of  New  England  Yearly 
Meeting,  particularly  in  connection  with  the  men  segre- 
gated in  Camp  Devens,  at  Ayer,  Massachusetts.  His  tem- 
porary work  in  the  office  revealed  his  traits  of  efficiency, 
and  his  devotion  to  the  cause  had  been  clear  to  everybody 
who  knew  him.  From  the  time  he  was  made  executive 
secretary  until  the  present  moment  he  has  been  a  weighty 
factor  in  the  development  and  direction  of  every  part  of 
the  wide  and  complex  undertakings.  He  has  revealed 
capacity  for  organization  and  an  equal  talent  for  matters 
of  large  scope  as  for  small  details.  Power  to  stand  hard, 
heavy  work  and  to  keep  his  head  clear  and  his  spirit 
sweet  is  not  the  least  feature  among  the  qualifications  with 
which  he  appears  to  be  gifted.  These  two  executive  sec- 
retaries were  so  vitally  connected  with  every  part  of  the 
work,  that  one  or  the  other  of  them  is  inseparably  linked 
into  every  important  undertaking  of  the  committee. 

Vincent  Nicholson  and  I  had  a  \ery  important  engage- 
ment in  Washington  (August  1,  1918)  for  which  I  had 
come  to  the  Capital  from  Maine.  On  arrival  there  I  found 
a  telegram   from   Vincent   saying  that  he  was  called   to 

1  The  wheels  moved  pitiably  slow  when  the  question  of  his  furlough 
came  up.  Many  etforts  were  made  to  secure  it  and  to  hasten  it.  but 
his  period  in  camp  lasted  until  the  time  of  the  armistice.  As  soon 
as  he  was  free  he  apj)lied  for  service  abroad,  was  accepted,  and  be.iran 
his  activity  in  France  as  a  humble  laborer  at  hut-buildini,'.  rajiidly 
rising  to  other  tasks  where  his  gifts  could  come  more  fully  into  play; 
and  at  a  later  period  of  his  service  he  undertook  an  important  mission 
to  Vienna  and  Poland 


118  SERVICE  OP  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

camp  and  could  not  join  me.  Again  and  again  we  had 
worked  together  in  Washington  on  critical  problems  and 
I  felt  now  somewhat  as  Paul  must  have  felt  alone  in  Athens. 
I  had  a  great  day's  work  to  do  and  no  companion  to  help 
share  the  strain  of  it.  It  proved  a  memorable  day,  how- 
ever, for  the  decisions  that  were  reached.  On  my  return 
to  Philadelphia  the  executive  board  was  called  together. 
It  was  decided  to  ask  Wilbur  K.  Thomas  to  become  execu- 
tive secretary,  and  I  was  commissioned  to  secure,  if  possible, 
his  release  from  his  engagements  in  Boston.  A  committee 
of  Boston  Friends'  Meeting  met  my  train  and  we  held  the 
decisive  conference  in  South  Station,  surrounded  by  sol- 
diers going  and  coming,  and  by  a  moving  throng  that 
wondered  what  we  were  debating  so  eagerly!  The  result 
was  that  Wilbur  Thomas  was  secured  for  the  important 
post.  He  threw  himself  at  once  into  the  work  with  en- 
thusiasm and  with  rare  ability.  One  of  the  earliest  of 
his  new  tasks  was  the  formation  of  plans  for  taking  care 
of  the  furloughed  men  during  the  interim  period  before 
they  could  sail  for  France.  It  was  decided  to  take  Merion 
Hall,  at  Haverford  College,  as  a  home  and  headquarters 
for  these  men  while  they  were  waiting.  They  were  given 
opportunities  for  studying  French,  for  practicing  automo- 
bile driving  and  repair,  and  for  learning  to  cook  and  serve 
meals.  They  also  did  a  large  amount  of  farm  work  on 
Haverford  College  and  other  near-by  farms. 

The  first  group  of  men  from  the  camps  who  arrived  at 
Merion  Hall  felt  powerfully  moved  when  they  found 
themselves  at  last  at  the  haven  of  their  hopes,  and  they 
aroused  deep  emotions  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  welcomed 
them.  Some  of  the  men  who  came  in  from  their  long  train 
journeys  sat  down  on  the  steps  of  the  hall  and  wept  for 
sheer   joy.    During   the   first    period   of   the   sojourn   at 


FURLOUGHED  FOR  RECONSTRUCTION   119 

Merion  Hall  Wilbur  Thomas  lived  with  the  men  and  gave 
them  much  counsel  and  fellowship.  The  personnel  com- 
mittee, a  sub-committee  of  the  Service  Committee,  had  the 
immediate  oversight  of  the  furloughed  men  and  of  their 
selection  and  equipment  for  the  field  serv^ice.  This  com- 
mittee, w^hose  work  now  became  greatly  expanded,  was  en- 
larged in  membership  and  was  reorganized  with  Morris  E. 
Leeds  as  its  chairman.  He  gave  a  large  amount  of  time  to 
the  extensive  work  under  the  personnel  committee  and 
proved  here,  as  he  had  done  in  France,  a  wise  and  devoted 
leader  and  counsellor. 

The  number  of  the  furloughed  men  steadily  increased 
and  the  promises  of  the  War  Department  led  us  to  expect 
that  a  large  part  of  all  the  conscientious  objectors  would 
soon  be  turned  over  to  us  to  be  provided  for.  Meantime 
we  could  only  very  slowly  get  the  men  off  for  overseas. 
Passports  came  very  tardily,  passages  were  hard  to  secure, 
and  it  was  not  possible  to  assimilate  large  groups  of  men 
at  a  time  into  the  work  in  France.  It,  therefore,  became 
necessary  for  us  to  work  out  some  better  plan  for  the  tem- 
porary management  of  the  men  and  for  using  their  labor 
while  they  were  in  ''demurrage."  At  this  juncture  Wil- 
liam B.  Harvey,  who  had  kept  in  close  touch  with  the  con- 
scientious objectors  and  who  had  been  very  active  in  helping 
to  solve  their  problems,  discovered  a  large  fruit-farm  at 
Rosedale,  near  Kennett  Square,  admirably  adapted  for  our 
purposes,  which  could  be  rented  as  a  home  for  the  large 
body  of  men.  The  farm  was  very  carefully  inspected  by 
members  of  the  committee  and  by  agricultural  experts,  and 
was  found  to  be  almost  exactly  what  we  wanted.  ]\Iore 
than  fifty  acres  of  the  farm  w^ere  covered  with  apple  and 
pear  trees,  the  fruit  ready  for  picking.  There  were  crops 
to  be  gathered,  large  quantities  of   wood  waiting  to  be 


120  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

sawed  and  sold,  threshing  of  the  grain  to  be  done,  com 
to  be  husked,  and  a  multitude  of  other  lines  of  work  inviting 
eager,  active  men.  There  was  a  large  summer  boarding- 
house  on  the  farm,  capable  of  holding  one  hundred  and 
fifty  persons,  but  without  any  heating  facilities  for  the 
winter  and  a  spacious  farm-house  which  could  be  trans- 
formed and  fitted  as  winter  quarters  for  a  large  group  of 
men.  We  arranged  a  lease  of  the  place  and  divided  the 
men  between  Merion  Hall  and  the  Rosedale  Farm.  Those 
who  were  nearly  ready  to  sail,  and  who  were  in  the  last 
stages  of  preparation  for  departure,  were  assigned  to  the 
former  place,  and  those  who  had  a  longer  stage  of  waiting 
before  them  went  to  Rosedale.  These  arrangements  were 
hardly  more  than  effected  when  the  epidemic  of  influenza 
fell  upon  this  part  of  the  world.  Our  men  in  both  quar- 
ters volunteered  at  once  for  hospital  duties  and  almost 
every  one  of  the  men  went  out  to  some  form  of  service  for 
the  sick  and  the  dying  in  the  two  neighborhoods  where  they 
lived.  Some  of  them  of  course  took  the  disease  but  no 
one  of  them  succumbed  to  it.  Their  help  in  this  crisis  was 
a  godsend  and  it  was  received  with  fervent  appreciation. 

Murray  Kenworthy  lived  for  a  time  with  the  men  at 
Rosedale  as  warden  and  when  he  had  to  return  home 
Thomas  K.  Brown,  formerly  principal  of  Westtown  School, 
was  asked  to  become  house-father  to  the  family,  a  position 
which  he  filled  Vv^ith  devotion  and  marked  success. 

The  men  set  to  work  with  a  will  to  pick  the  plentiful 
fruit  of  the  farm,  sort  it  into  grades  and  sell  it;  to  cut 
and  husk  the  corn-crop ;  to  make  apple-butter  and  cider  of 
some  of  the  apples;  to  build  on  a  lean-to  kitchen  to  the 
farm-house;  to  set  up  shower-baths  and  washing  arrange- 
ments in  one  of  the  porches;  to  make  a  sewage-disposal 
plant;  and,  since  the  water  was  found  to  be  unsanitary,  to 


FURLOUGHED  FOR  RECONSTRUCTION      121 

bore  a  well  and  set  up  a  water-system.  About  the  middle 
of  December  the  men  moved  into  the  farm-house,  which 
was  from  that  time  on  used  exclusively.  In  addition  to  the 
tasks  already  mentioned,  the  men  had  to  care  for  the  stock 
and  were  also  hired  out  to  neighboring  farmers  to  help  pay 
for  the  cost  of  their  keep  and  the  improvements  they  were 
forced  to  make  in  the  house. 

It  was  interesting  to  find  that  for  every  task  that  pre- 
sented itself  some  man  among  the  number  offered  himself 
as  an  expert,  or  at  least  a  competent  performer  of  the 
work.  A  man  who  had  had  his  ear-drums  broken  by 
brutality  in  camp  was  discovered  to  be  an  expert  fruit- 
grower, and  organized  the  grading,  selling  and  buying  in 
connection  with  the  fruit.  Another  had  been  technical  in- 
structor at  a  Dunkard  college,  and  was  of  material  assist- 
ance in  directing  and  helping  with  the  engineering  feats; 
several  carpenters  presented  themselves,  one  mess  expert, 
while  a  large  proportion  of  the  men  were  competent  farmers. 
They  were  a  strongly  religious  group.  They  held  a  mid- 
week service,  attended  neighboring  places  of  worship  on 
First  Day,  and  often  had  a  service  for  themselves  in  the 
evening  as  well.  Many  Friends  and  others  visited  them 
to  help  with  these  services. 

Altogether  Rosedale  Farm  was  occupied  by  the  men  for 
only  five  months,  and  towards  the  end  of  the  time  the  men 
were  being  shifted  at  such  a  rate  that  almost  the  whole 
group  would  change  every  fortnight.  This  was,  of  course, 
very  difficult  for  the  work,  and  added  much  to  complica- 
tions of  managing  the  farm  and  home.  When  the  use  of 
the  farm  came  to  an  end  the  committee  had  made  about 
$4000  by  the  sale  of  fruit,  apple-butter  and  wood,  and  had 
been  largely  able  to  provide  the  entire  body  of  men  with 
food.     This  income  went  a  good  ways  towards  covering  the 


122  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

cost  of  the  experiment,  though  owing  to  the  exceptional 
difficulties  it  was  never  quite  self-supporting.  The  spirit 
of  the  place,  the  warm  comradeship,  the  atmosphere  of  wil- 
ling service  for  no  return  was  delightful  to  experience,  and 
will  remain  a  bright  memory  for  all  those  engaged  in  the 
work  at  Rosedale  Farm,  and  for  those  also  who  had  the 
management  of  it. 

The  total  number  of  men  turned  over  to  us  on  furlough 
was  exactly  two  hundred.  It  would,  of  course,  have  been 
very  much  larger  had  not  the  armistice  brought  release  to 
the  men  in  the  camps  soon  after  the  furlough  system  got 
well  into  working  shape.  It  was  noteworthy  that  as  the 
armistice  came  into  force  and  brought  to  the  men  the  op- 
portunity to  be  released  from  their  farm-furloughs,  the 
great  majority  of  them  came  to  the  Service  Committee  to 
volunteer  of  their  own  free  will  for  a  year's  service  in 
France. 

Our  next  and  last  important  task  in  connection  with  the 
conscientious  objectors  under  the  draft  was  to  secure  from 
the  War  Department  an  arrangement  by  which  all  our 
men  in  France,  who  were  technically  counted  as  drafted 
men,  could  be  discharged  without  returning  to  the  camps 
at  which  they  were  ''inducted."  We  naturally  wanted  a 
form  of  release  that  would  cover  not  only  the  furloughed 
men,  but  also  as  well  the  men  abroad  who  had  been 
''called"  and  had  had  their  call  "delayed"  by  special  ar- 
rangement. We  were  told  by  all  officials  whom  we  visited 
in  Washington  that  no  arrangement  could  be  made  to  grant 
"discharges"  to  any  men  until  they  presented  themselves 
at  the  camp  which  they  had  entered.  It  appeared,  how- 
ever, from  our  interviews  that  the  chief -of -staff  was  the  per- 
son of  final  authority  in  such  matters.  We  asked  for  an 
interview  with   him.    At  that   time   General   Marsh  was 


FURLOUGHED  FOR  RECONSTRUCTION      123 

abroad  and  General  Jervey  was  acting-chief.  He  was 
unspeakably  busy,  but,  as  we  were  well  introduced  by  per- 
sons of  authority,  he  interrupted  another  interview  and 
received  us.  I  told  him  what  we  wanted.  His  answer  was : 
**It  cannot  be  done.  There  is  no  arrangement  by  which 
anybody  can  have  a  'release'  without  coming  home."  A 
burst  of  faith  and  inspiration  came  to  me  and,  in  a  flash,  I 
pictured  to  him  what  our  work  in  France  meant  and  what 
disaster  it  would  involve  to  bring  the  men  home  for  their 
discharges.  ^  He  showed  instant  interest  and  asked  a  num- 
ber of  questions  about  the  men  and  their  work,  and  re- 
marked, ''It  would  be  a  shame  to  upset  such  a  work."  I 
earnestly  pressed  my  request  and  to  my  joy  he  said:  "I 
will  see  that  a  plan  is  arranged  to  accomplish  this.  You 
may  count  on  it."  It  was  happily  accomplished  as  prom- 
ised and  the  "furloughs"  came  to  an  end. 

We  did,  furthermore,  a  very  large  amount  of  work,  early 
and  late  toward  the  relief  of  prisoners  at  Fort  Leavenworth 
and  in  other  military  prisons  and  we  did  what  could  be 
done  to  secure  amnesty  for  those  who  were  suffering  for 
conscience'  sake.  AVe  also  presented  to  the  officials  in 
charge  of  the  S.  A.  T.  C.  (Students  Army  Training  Corps) 
the  attitude  of  the  Friends  Colleges  and  secured  from  the 
officials  a  positive  approval  of  the  consistent  policy  which 
fitted  the  ideals  of  these  institutions,  namely  that  they 
should  continue  to  offer  their  usual  courses  of  study.  It 
should  be  said  before  closing  this  chapter  that  the  business, 
so  briefly  sketched  in  it,  took  those  of  us  who  conducted  it 
before  a  very  large  number  of  government  officials  and 
army  officers.  We  always  made  our  religious  position  as 
clear  to  them  as  was  possible.  Even  in  the  most  critical 
times  we  kept  our  central  loyalty  to  our  spiritual  ideals 
in  the  foreground  of  all  our  efforts.     No  concealment  of  our 


124  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

principles  was  ever  thought  of,  nor  was  any  conscious  com- 
promise ever  allowed  to  color  our  statements.  And  yet  we 
had  the  most  polite  and  sympathetic  treatment  on  every 
hand.  Everybody  seemed  to  understand.  They  met  us 
with  fair  and  open  minds.  Officers  accustomed  to  com- 
mand, and  raised  to  a  pinnacle  of  dignity,  talked  with  us 
on  a  basis  of  easy  freedom  and  allowed  us  to  debate  every 
point  at  will.  When  the  board  of  inquiry  made  its  first 
report  in  person  to  the  War  Department  I  was  unexpect- 
edly invited  in  with  them  and  was  allowed  to  hear  all  the 
details  of  their  experiences  in  the  camps  and  their  reac- 
tions upon  all  matters  concerning  the  C.  O.'s,  Whatever 
the  officials  with  whom  we  dealt  may  have  thought  of  war 
in  general,  they  appeared  to  be  glad  that  there  w^as  a  group 
of  Christians  left  in  the  world  who  still  took  Christ's  way 
of  life  seriously  and  who  in  the  face  of  grave  difficulties 
were  endeavoring  to  practice  it.^ 

This  will,  perhaps,  be  the  proper  place  to  express  an 
appreciation  of  the  cooperation  and  fellowship  of  the 
Mennonites  of  the  Old  Order.  Their  young  men  stood  the 
test  of  the  camps  with  insight  and  with  much  bravery. 
They  had  the  backing  of  their  Church  and  they  were  con- 
scious that  they  were  its  standard-bearers.  They  became 
closely  united  in  fellowship  with  our  men  in  the  camps 
and  they  shared  with  them  the  desire  to  make  a  positive 
contribution  in  service  abroad.  Groups  of  Mennonites 
met  many  times  with  groups  of  Friends.  We  usually  kept 
them  informed  of  our  movements  and  plans,  and  they  finally 
decided  to  encourage  their  young  men  to  volunteer  for  our 
work  or  to  accept  furloughs  for  it  where  opportunity  of- 

1  I  want  particularly  to  mention  with  deep  appreciation  the  names 
and  Col.  Herman.  Captain  Hough  of  Camp  Sherman  understood  the 
C.  0.  problem  more  clearly  than  did  any  other  officer  with  whom  the 
boys  had  to  deal. 


FURLOUGHED  FOR  RECONSTRUCTION      125 

fered.  Nearly  sixty  of  their  members,  thus,  went  abroad 
under  our  committee.  They  were  excollont  workers  and 
they  brought  a  fine  spirit  of  devotion  and  cooperation  to 
the  mission.  They  merged  with  the  Friends  with  a  natural 
grace  and  we  always  thought  of  them  as  a  part  of  ourselves. 
The  Mennonites  in  every  part  of  America  contributed  with 
liberality  to  the  work,  sending  a  total  of  more  than 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Representatives  of  this 
body  met  by  invitation  with  us  on  the  occasions  of  our 
general  committee  meetings  and  in  a  close  and  intimate 
way  shared  with  us  in  the  Mission  of  Love.  They  have 
taken  a  very  noble  part  in  the  endeavor  to  rebuild  the  old 
waste  places.  They  have  also  had  a  part  in  most  of  our 
other  fields  of  labor. 


CHAPTER  X 

IN  PARIS  AT  THE  CENTER 

The  central  office  of  our  American  Unit  was  in  the  Paris 
headquarters  of  the  American  Red  Cross.  In  the  early 
period  this  was  at  4  Place  de  la  Concorde  and  later  in  the 
Hotel  Regina,  Place  de  Rivoli.  Charles  Evans,  as  already 
indicated,  was  chief  of  our  American  Unit  from  the  time 
of  his  arrival  in  Paris  in  September,  1917,  until  his  return 
home  in  November,  1918,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Charles 
J.  Rhoads  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  already  for  some  time 
been  associated  with  him  in  the  Paris  office.  The  im- 
portance of  the  leadership  of  these  two  men  cannot  well 
be  overstated.  They  were  gifted  with  insight ;  they  en- 
tered intimately  into  all  that  concerned  the  life  of  all  the 
members  of  the  group  ;  they  knew  how  to  work  harmoniously 
in  cooperation  with  the  English  Friends  and  at  the  same 
time  with  the  Red  Cross ;  they  understood  the  French  mind ; 
they  possessed  unusual  financial  ability,  and  they  shared 
and  vitally  expressed  the  ideals  of  the  mission.  They  both 
made  very  great  sacrifices  when  they  went  out  to  take  up 
this  work  of  ours,  and  they  gave  themselves  unsparingly 
while  they  were  there.  I  shall  not  often  refer  specifically 
to  these  men  by  name,  but  it  can  always  be  understood  that 
they  had  an  indispensable  part  in  shaping  the  work  in 
France.  Joseph  H.  Haines  was  a  very  helpful  assistant 
to  the  two  Friends  mentioned  above,  and  he  proved  his 
ability  and  fine  spirit  throughout  his  period  of  service. 

126 


IN  PARIS  AT  THE  CENTER  127 

The  Paris  problems  were  always  complicated.  Every 
equipe  of  workers  had  its  peculiar  nest  of  difficulties.  The 
chief  of  each  equipe  was  elected  by  the  workers  who  be- 
longed to  it,  and  within  limits  the  little  group  was  self- 
governing.  But  many  of  its  problems  were  sure  to  filter 
in  to  Paris.  Besides  our  American  headquarters  the 
united  mission  had  another  central  headquarters  which  was 
at  53  Rue  de  Rivoli.  Here  were  located  the  offices  of  the 
executive  secretary,  Wilfrid  Shewell — a  rare  man  with  a 
fine  level  head — and  the  office  of  the  treasurer,  Ralph 
Elliott  of  England,  and  later  Walter  Bowerman  of  America, 
and  here,  too,  centered  many  of  the  important  activities  of 
the  mission.  Many  of  the  equipe  problems  were  naturally 
dealt  with  at  53  Rue  de  Rivoli  and  many  came  to  the  Amer- 
ican chief.  There  were  many  chances  for  friction  and  mis- 
understanding in  the  somewhat  more  than  double-headed 
plan  of  management.  But,  as  a  matter  of  actual  fact  and 
practice,  it  worked  well.  It  worked  well  just  because  the 
persons  who  were  charged  with  the  management  were  of  the 
broad,  understanding  type,  untrammeled  by  red  tape  and 
narrow  officialism,  and  ready  to  see  what  was  the  best  way 
to  handle  each  individual  case  as  it  arose.  Sometimes  53 
Rue  de  Rivoli  would  take  a  matter  of  adjustment  in  hand 
and  sometimes  it  would  be  done  by  the  American  office,  and 
whenever  one  of  the  two  leaders  worked  out  the  solution,  the 
staff  of  the  other  office  regarded  it  as  though  done  by  itself. 
Once  more,  and  that,  too,  in  matters  where  efficiency  was  a 
prime  requisite  the  Friendly  method  of  doing  things  worked 
well  and  brought  excellent  results. 

It  was  somewhat  similar  also  with  the  two  home  bases 
of  management.  The  American  Service  Committee  in 
Philadelphia  and  the  War  Victims  Committee  in  London 
might  easily  have  been  at  loggerheads  much  of  the  time. 


128  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Both  were  directing  and  financing  the  same  work.  To  each 
belonged  the  selection  and  care  of  its  own  body  of  workers. 
Each  committee  was  autonomous  and  was  absorbed  with  its 
own  peculiar  tasks,  and  yet,  with  three  thousand  miles  of 
ocean  between  them  and  despite  the  fact  that  their  two 
bands  of  workers  were  merged  into  a  single  Mission  in  a 
country  remote  from  either  base,  the  work  ran  smoothly  and 
the  relations  remained  close,  intimate  and  friendly.  This 
happy  issue  was  in  good  measure  due  to  the  spirit  which 
infused  the  whole  undertaking,  and  to  the  peculiar  fitness 
of  the  heads  of  the  Paris  group  where  the  complications  and 
acute  situations  had  to  be  threshed  out  and  settled.  It  is  a 
good  rule  that  the  right  person  should  always  he  chosen  to 
head  any  important  undertaking! 

Besides  the  division  of  the  workers  in  the  Mission  into 
a  multitude  of  local  self-governing  equipes  the  forces  were 
also  divided  into  differentiated  departments,  each  with  its 
department-head.  At  first  the  main  interest  had  been  med- 
ical and  then  secondly  relief  for  suffering  refugees,  but  by 
the  time  we  Americans  entered  the  Mission  reconstruction 
of  villages  had  become  a  very  prominent  feature.  In  the 
period  of  joint  work  the  departments  of  the  Service  were 
Medical,  Building,  Works,  Manufacturing,  Agriculture  and 
Relief.  1  These  six  types  of  service  involved  also  a  trans- 
port department,  a  department  of  maintenance  and  one  of 
equipment.  I  shall  not  find  it  possible  to  deal  at  length 
with  the  departments  which  ministered  primarily  to  the 
Mission  itself,  but  it  should  be  understood  by  the  reader 
that  these  departments  were  absolutely  essential  to  the 
existence  of  the  Mission  and  to  the  efficiency  of  the  work. 
It  was  not  by  any  means  a  small  matter  to  keep  this  large 

1  At  a  later  period,  as  we  shall  see,  there  was  a  Department  of 
Purchase  and  Sales. 


IN  PARIS  AT  THE  CENTER  129 

body  of  workers  fed,  clothed  and  supplied  with  the  material 
by  which  they  did  their  work.  Motor  transport  was,  too, 
a  vital  factor.  The  men  and  women  who  drove  cars,  trucks 
and  lorries  were  as  close  to  the  heart  of  the  Mission  as  wore 
any  of  the  star  workers.  Their  contribution  made  all  other 
forms  of  contribution  possible. 

i\ranufacturing,  works  and  building  were  of  course  closely 
affiliated.  The  first  had  to  do  with  the  direction  and  opera- 
tion of  the  two  house  building  factories  at  Dole  and  Ornans, 
of  which  more  will  be  said  in  due  time.  "Works"  had  to  do 
with  the  work  of  preparing  buildings  to  house  the  equipes 
and  all  forms  of  work  which  had  to  do  with  building  and 
repair  for  the  ]\Iission  itself.  The  building  department  had 
oversight  of  the  actual  construction  of  the  villages  in  which 
the  houses  made  by  the  manufacturing  department,  or  other- 
wise secured,  were  put  up.  These  departments  through 
their  chief  made  reports  at  each  meeting  of  the  Paris  Execu- 
tive Committee  when  a  budget  for  the  coming  month  of 
work  was  made  up,  and  the  work  of  co-operation  was  guided 
both  by  these  meetings  and  by  the  unifying  agency  of  the 
Executive  Secretary  and  his  staff.  The  Paris  Executive 
Committee  was  a  very  interesting  representative  body.  Its 
meetings  generally  lasted  for  two  daj^s  and  enabled  all  who 
attended  them  to  get  and  to  keep  a  pretty  firm  grasp  of  the 
entire  field  of  work. 

As  soon  as  we  had  a  fair  prospect  of  receiving  a  large 
group  of  furloughed  men  for  work  abroad  we  began  to 
work  out  a  plan  for  a  second  unit  of  American  workers. 
The  Red  Cross,  which  was  in  great  need  of  workers  in 
France  for  its  civilian  activities,  agreed  to  cover  the  ex- 
penses of  the  men  in  Unit  No.  2,  but  they  were  still  to 
remain  under  our  care  and  oversight.  It  was  essential 
that  we  should  secure  a  good,  wise  understanding  man  as 


130  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

the  responsible  head  of  this  new  group.  We  chose  William 
C.  Biddle  of  New  York  who,  like  all  our  other  leaders,  gave 
up  much  that  held  him  here  when  he  went  forth  to  the 
work,  and  he,  too,  made  a  very  important  contribution  to  the 
success  of  the  work.  This  second  Unit  was  not  merged  with 
the  English  Friends,  though  the  members  of  it  were  in 
close  and  intimate  relations  with  the  Mission.  Their  ex- 
periences had  prepared  them  in  a  peculiar  way  for  service 
and  they  were  penetrated  with  the  spirit  and  with  the 
ideals  of  the  Friends.  They  formed  a  "flying  corps"  of  ef- 
ficient men,  ready  for  almost  any  service  which  the  Red 
Cross  needed  to  have  accomplished.  Groups  of  these  men 
constructed  hospitals  and  equipped  them,  built  barracks  for 
tuberculous  patients,  took  charge  of  expositions  of  methods 
for  the  care  and  welfare  of  little  children,  assisted  in  the 
relief  of  prisoners,  took  part  in  the  work  to  ease  the  condi- 
tion of  persons  who  had  gone  insane  during  the  war,  and 
in  numerous  other  ways  contributed  to  the  extension  of 
hospital  work.  Sometimes  workers  who  were  originally  a 
part  of  Unit  No.  1  were  "loaned"  to  the  Red  Cross  for 
definite  pieces  of  work.  In  cases  of  this  type  they  might 
be  transferred  to  Unit  No.  2  or  they  might,  for  the  "loaned" 
period,  become  regular  members  of  the  Red  Cross  force, 
according  to  circumstances. 

Lewis  S.  Gannett,  one  of  the  members  of  the  original 
Haverford  Unit,  has  written  a  vivid  account  of  some  of  the 
forms  of  service  performed  by  these  men: 

"The  first  call  for  man-power  came  from  Toul,  where  the  Red 
Cross  was  trying  to  turn  the  barracks  of  a  military  school  into 
a  healthy  and  happy  home  for  some  500  refugee  children  under 
eight  years  of  age,  who  had  been  sent  away  from  their  mothers 
in  the  frontier  villages  because  there  was  continual  danger  of  gas 
attacks.     In   connection  with  the  refuge   a  hospital  was  estab- 


IN  PARIS  AT  THE  CENTER  131 

lished  for  the  civilians  of  frontier  Lorraine  who  had  been  without 
adequate  medical  care  since  their  doctors  were  mobilized  in  1914. 
To  this  hospital  six  men  were  sent.  They  did  odd  jobs  of  car- 
pentry, installed  a  playground  and  carpenter  shop  for  the 
children,  and  finished  a  hundred  and  one  other  bits  of  work 
which  the  doctors  and  nurses  had  not  been  able  to  get  done. 
When  Nancy  came  under  heavy  bombardment  by  long-range 
cannon  and  air-bombs,  word  came  to  Toul  that  the  Nancy  mater- 
nity hospital  would  have  to  be  transferred  to  the  barracks  on 
a  few  hours'  notice;  the  heads  of  the  hospital  give  eloquent 
testimony  to  the  work  which  the  Quakers  did  in  scrubbing  the 
disused  building,  putting  up  beds,  and  making  the  other  neces- 
sary preparations.  Two  hours  after  the  Toul  Maternite  was 
opened  its  first  baby  came  into  the  world. 

"Then  came  the  work  at  Chateau  Hachette.  When  that  exten- 
sive property  with  an  unusually  beautiful  park,  was  offered  to 
the  English  Friends  for  tuberculosis  refugees,  they  realized  that 
it  probably  should  be  considered  in  the  general  scheme  of  tuber- 
culosis work  which  the  Red  Cross  and  the  Rockefeller  Commis- 
sion for  the  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis  were  undertaking,  and 
they  referred  it  to  the  former  organization.  In  November  the 
Red  Cross  obtained  the  use  of  the  estate,  rent  free,  and  six 
weeks  later,  on  Christmas  day,  the  first  patients  were  received. 
In  the  interim  every  American  Friend  who  was  delayed  at  Paris 
waiting  for  passes  had  been  working  hard  under  the  direction 
of  Haldane  Robinson,  one  of  the  English  Friends,  to  finish  the 
papering,  plastering,  carpentry,  plumbing,  glazing,  and  painting 
necessary  to  turn  an  orangerie  into  a  ward,  an  outbuilding  into 
a  children's  pavilion,  a  chateau  into  a  modern  hospital.  The  work 
at  Hachette  kept  up  all  through  the  winter  and  at  one  time  or 
another  almost  every  one  had  a  hand  in  it. 

"In  the  spring  the  Red  Cross  began  an  extensive  experiment 
on  an  estate  a  short  distance  from  Hachette — the  building  of  a 
village  of  portable  houses  to  care  for  refugee  families  in  which 
there  are  one  or  more  tuberculosis  members.  The  Soilage'  will 
have  a  house  for  each  family,  a  store,  playground,  baths,  and. 


132  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

of  course,  quarters  for  the  doctors  and  nurses  who  will  supervise 
the  whole  so  that  the  sick  may  become  better  and  the  well  escape 
the  infection.  After  the  war  each  family  can  take  its  portable 
house  back  to  its  devastated  village  in  the  war  zone.  This  villaiie, 
together  with  the  Hachette  estate,  go  under  the  general  name 
of  the  Edward  L.  Trudeau  Sanatorium,  in  memory  of  the  great 
American  tuberculosis  expert  who  was  of  French  parentage. 
Charles  Parnell  and  Ralph  Whitely  are  at  work  in  the  sana- 
torium proper  as  orderlies,  and  some  thirty-five  Friends  are 
building  the  village, — Robinson,  and  Reginald  Dann,  of  the 
English  Friends,  Frank  Cholerton,  of  the  American  Friends 
Unit  No.  1,  and  thirty-two  members  of  Unit  No.  2,  the  body  of 
Americans  brought  over  at  the  request  of  the  Red  Cross  to  do 
the  more  extensive  pieces  of  Red  Cross  work  for  which  sufficient 
men  could  not  be  taken  from  the  regular  Friends  equipes. 
Early  last  autumn  one  worker  was  borrowed  by  the  Red  Cross  to 
assist  in  organizing  a  special  factory  for  the  manufacture  of 
artificial  limbs  for  French  war  cripples;  two  others  were  lent 
for  editorial  work  in  which  they  had  special  experience;  another 
was  assigned  as  an  assistant  in  the  organization  of  an  agricul- 
tural training  center  for  French  war  cripples. 

"Two  men  have  gone  to  assist  the  mutile  farm,  and  the  chief 
of  the  Bureau  for  the  Re-education  of  Mutiles  is  clamoring  for 
three  more  men.  Another  helper  will  probably  be  assigned  to 
run  a  dairy  farm  at  La  Chaux,  near  Lyons,  where  the  Red  Cross 
has  a  convalescent  camp  for  several  hundred  Paris  and  Lyons 
slum  children. 

"In  November  some  six  hundred  children  from  occupied  Bel- 
gium, sickly  and  under-nourished,  were  sent  to  France,  through 
Switzerland,  to  be  cared  for  in  a  refuge  established  in  a  former 
Chartreuse  monastery  at  Le  Glandier  under  the  joint  auspices  of 
the  Queen  of  the  Belgians  and  the  Red  Cross.  Two  English 
Friends  and  two  Americans  were  sent  to  teach  the  boys  healthy 
American  games,  to  organize  Boy  Scout  troops,  and  do  anything 
else  that  might  be  asked  of  them.  These  Belgian  children  came 
from  Liege,  a  factory  city  of  coal  and  iron;  they  did  not  know 


IN  PARIS  AT  THE  CENTER  133 

how  to  play:  apparently  they  never  had  known  or  had  forgotten 
under  the  rigors  of  three  years  of  German  rule;  and  they  felt 
strange  and  homesick  in  the  country.  The  success  of  the  Friends 
in  helping  to  make  them  normally  vigorous  and  happy  children 
is  attested  by  request  for  more  such  workers  which  the  Queen's 
representative  in  charge  of  the  school  made  to  the  Friends. 

"A  baby  saving  exhibit  was  opened  by  the  Red  Cross  at  Lyons 
on  April  9th,  and  attracted  173,000  visitors  in  the  three  weeks 
of  its  existence.  Half-a-dozen  of  our  workers  helped  arrange 
exhibits,  put  up  signs,  gave  out  literature,  played  football  with  the 
boys  in  its  model  playgrounds,  and  did  other  odd  jobs.  In  June 
they  went  on  with  the  exposition  to  Marseilles.  Five  workers 
were  assigned  to  help  in  the  permanent  playgrounds  established 
at  Lyons.  Some  of  these  two  groups  of  men  will  be  detailed  to 
the  convalescent  camp  at  La  Chaux,  near  Lyons,  to  erect  the 
wooden  barracks  which  are  to  increase  the  capacity  of  the  camp 
by  several  hundred  children. 

"The  German  offensive  in  March  brought  emergencies  in  which 
every  member  of  the  war  zone  equipes  was  called  upon  to  play 
special  parts;  and  as  the  aftermath  of  that  work,  several  specially 
trained  members  of  the  units  have  continued  in  Red  Cross  work 
for  these  refugees.  A  group  of  Friends  went  to  Eaux  Bonnes 
in  the  Pyrenees  to  help  care  for  some  hundreds  of  evacues  driven 
from  their  homes  in  the  Somme  before  the  Gei'man  advance. 
Eaux  Bonnes  has  since  become  a  regular  Friends'  equipe. 

""\Mien  the  German  offensive  in  late  May  drove  thousands  of 
homeless  folk  from  their  villages  in  the  Aisne  and  the  Marne,  the 
Red  Cross  turned  to  the  Friends  for  aid  in  managing  the  very 
critical  situation  which  it  produced  in  the  Aube,  just  south  of  the 
invaded  or  threatened  countiy.  Dorothy  North,  who  has  been 
a  member  of  the  relief  equipe  at  Troyes  since  last  autumn,  has 
been  appointed  to  the  inii)ortant  position  of  delegate  for  the  Red 
Cross  Bureau  of  Refugees  at  that  strategic  point,  where  her 
knowledge  of  the  conditions  and  the  work  will  be  especially 
vahiable. 

"One  of  the  latest  requests,  also  from  the  Bureau  of  Refugees, 


134  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

was  for  workers  at  Evian,  where  hundreds  of  rapatries,  returned 
to  France  by  the  German  authorities,  enter  the  country  at  the 
Swiss  frontier.  Three  men  have  gone  to  take  charge  of  a  canteen 
where  the  thirsty  travellers  can  get  lemonade  and  other  sweet 
drinks  after  their  long  and  uncomfortable  journey.  Another 
worker  has  been  detailed  to  drive  an  automobile  for  the  Shurtleff 
Memorial  Fund,  one  of  the  excellent  Paris  charities  for  refugees 
with  which  the  Red  Cross  works  in  close  cooperation. 

"In  the  recent  rush  of  weary  refugees  through  the  Paris  stations, 
as  many  as  thirty-five  or  forty  Friends  have  been  on  duty  some 
days,  or  some  nights,  carrying  luggage,  washing  dishes  in  the 
emergency  canteens,  giving  medical  aid,  befriending  the  unhappy 
people  forced  from  their  homes.  A.  C.  Holliday  heroically 
donned  an  apron  and  has  been  cooking  in  an  improvised  kitchen 
seven  days  a  week,  many  hours  a  day,  making  the  cocoa,  coffee 
and  hot  soup  that  are  given  to  the  hundreds  of  travellers  at  that 
station  before  they  pass  on. 

"Without  the  Friends  the  Red  Cross  probably  could  not  have 
undertaken  its  great  tuberculosis  center  at  Hachette  and  the 
model  village  which  is  unique  in  medical  history;  in  other  enter- 
prises they  have  given  the  all-essential  aid,  usually  unromantic 
hard  manual  work,  which  has  pushed  the  venture  throup,h  to  suc- 
cess. These  accomplishments  are  marked  up  to  the  credit  of  the 
Friends  in  the  memories  of  the  Red  Cross  officials  in  Paris  and 
of  the  directors  of  the  institutions  to  whose  aid  they  have  come; 
but  it  is  well  that  the  Friends  at  home  also  should  know  how  well 
many  uninteresting  but  all-essential  tasks  have  been  done  and 
how  readily  emergencies  have  been  met.  'Quakers  proving  in- 
valuable^ was  the  verdict  sent  by  Edward  Eyre  Hunt,  Red  Cross 
head  of  the  emergency  relief  for  civilians,  in  the  battle  of 
Picardy,  and  he  is  not  alone  in  his  judgment." 

Another  one  of  our  workers  has  given  an  impressive  ac- 
count of  the  scene  of  work  among  the  refugees  at  Evian-les- 
Bains : 


IN  PARIS  AT  THE  CENTER  135 

"Many  of  the  refugees  were  sent  home  into  France,  via  Switz- 
erland, in  huge  convoys  and  arrived  at  Evian-les-Bains  on  the 
French  shore  of  Lake  Geneva.  When  the  frontier  was  open  two 
special  trains  brought  in  some  1,300  of  these  forlorn  and  desti- 
tute people  daily.  I  shall  never  forget  the  sight  of  one  of  these 
convoy  trains  coming  in.  A  French  band  played  the  national 
airs  to  welcome  them  and  the  people  peered  from  the  car  win- 
dows, many  of  them  like  dazed  and  terrified  animals.  Some  were 
weeping,  others  were  singing,  shouting,  clapping  and  cheering, 
and  some  were  silent  and  expressionless.  They  were  pale,  tired, 
thin  and  worn,  and  entire  strangers  all  of  them  in  that  section 
of  their  fatherland.  Some  were  incurably  ill  and  had  come  home 
to  die,  some  were  on  stretchers,  some  on  crutches.  It  was  the 
moment  they  had  been  longing  for  for  four  long  years — the 
moment  of  home-coming — and  yet  it  was  not  home,  and  they 
were  separated  from  all  who  were  near  and  dear  to  them.  They 
trudged  through  the  town  to  the  big  casino  where  the  Service  de 
Rapatriement  handled  this  throng  of  people  with  wonderful 
efficiency.  It  was  splendidly  organized.  There  were  great 
pavilions  of  baths  and  all  of  the  people  had  shower  baths,  and 
had  their  clothes  fumigated.  They  then  had  supper  or  breakfast, 
as  the  case  might  be,  in  the  huge  auditorium.  The  band  played 
and  the  prefet  or  mayor  made  a  stirring  speech  of  welcome  and 
recounted  to  them  all  their  hardships  till  every  face  was  bathed  in 
tears.  Next  they  proceeded  to  the  registration  bureau  where 
they  tried  to  learn  some  news  of  their  families  whom  they  had 
lost  all  trace  of  for  three  or  four  years.  And  here  they  heard 
both  welcome  and  tragic  news.  I  have  never  seen  a  sadder  sight. 
One  felt  that  one  should  not  be  there  and  one  could  not  gaze  upon 
their  sorrow. 

"After  that  they  were  ushered  into  the  social  service  depart- 
ment and  their  financial  condition  was  inquired  into  and  those  who 
were  penniless  were  given  a  few  francs  by  the  government  to 
last  them  a  week  or  so.  They  next  had  a  medical  examination. 
Those  who  were  very  ill  were  sent  to  hospitals,  those  who  were 


136  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

fit  were  allocated  to  go  to  various  towns  in  the  interior  of  France 
to  there  take  up  their  life  anew,  and  those  who  were  convales- 
cent or  very  markedly  below  par  were  allotted  to  institutions  like 
the  one  at  Samoens  (to  be  described  in  a  later  chapter). 

"And  so  the  throng  passed,  like  cattle,  from  one  department 
to  another  and  finally  all  were  labelled  to  go  to  certain  hotels  in 
Evian  until  time  for  their  trains  to  depart,  and  were  supplied 
with  railway  tickets  with  no  choice  in  the  matter  as  to  where 
they  were  to  go.  They  remained  in  Evian  from  24  to  48  hours 
and  were  housed  in  hotels  like  sardines  in  a  box." 

Paul  Elliott  wrote  thus  of  the  Child-welfare  exposition: 
*'The  exposition  was  taken  very  seriously.  Mothers  and 
fathers  brought  their  children  by  the  hundreds  to  be  exam- 
ined by  the  doctors.  Every  day  many  more  applied  for 
numbers  designating  their  turn  with  the  various  doctors  for 
examination  than  could  possibly  be  examined.  Mothers 
read  and  kept  for  reference  the  literature  which  was  given 
them  as  they  left  the  exposition.  It  dealt  with  babies' 
health  and  care ;  feeding  of  children ;  care  of  teeth ;  preven- 
tion of  tuberculosis,  and  many  other  things." 

Christopher  Roberts,  a  Haverford  student  who  volun- 
teered for  work  in  Unit  No.  2,  gave  a  glimpse  in  one  of  his 
letters  of  the  fine  help  these  men  gave  to  the  rapatries  as 
they  came  in  from  their  awful  experiences  behind  the  lines. 
He  says : 

"Our  work  was  a  case  of  necessity  as  there  was  no  provision 
whatever  for  feeding  them  otherwise.  Fortunately  we  had  the 
provisions.  The  word  came  at  six  in  the  evening,  and  by  dint  of 
staying  up  nearly  all  night,  we  were  prepared  at  six  the  next 
morning  to  give  breakfast  to  600  and  to  give  the  same  600  each  a 
package  of  food  to  take  with  him.  The  same  thing  occurred  two 
days  later  when  a  train  load  of  650  insane  people  came  in  with 
only  a  few  hours'  warning.     At  the  expiration  of  the  two  hours, 


IN  PARIS  AT  THE  CENTER  137 

each  of  the  650  insane  persons  was  provided  wilh  a  lunch  done 
up  for  the  trip. 

"On  Sunday  a  train  of  500  civil  prisoners  arrived  at  Evian 
as  the  result  of  an  exchange  arrangement.  These  were  largely  the 
notables  of  the  cities  or  the  most  influential  citizens  of  the  villages 
of  Northern  France.  They  had  been  taken  as  hostages  by  the 
Germans,  ostensibly  as  an  insurance  of  the  treatment  of  the 
civilians  of  Alsace  made  prisoners  by  the  French.  The  conditions 
under  which  these  people  have  been  living  for  the  past  four 
years  have  been  very  severe.  Many  of  them  are  those  of  com- 
fortable circumstances  before  the  war  and  they  have  felt  very 
keenly  the  privations  and  suffering  to  which  they  have  been 
subjected." 

It  became  necessary,  of  course,  to  have  a  home  for  the 
men  of  Unit  No.  2  w^hen  they  were  in  Paris,  as  they  occa- 
sionally were  while  being  shifted  from  one  piece  of  work  to 
another.  It  was  important,  too,  to  have  a  home  for  the  new 
men  when  they  arrived  from  America,  an  abiding  place 
while  they  were  making  arrangements  for  their  field  of 
service.  For  this  purpose  the  Hostel  of  the  Women 
Students  attending  the  University  of  Paris  was  taken  over, 
located  at  93  Boulevard  St.  Michel.  It  was  admirably 
suited  to  be  a  home  for  our  men  and  here  they  gathered 
from  all  parts  of  America,  Friends,  Mennonites,  and  many 
others.  To  those  who  had  been  through  the  ordeal  of  the 
camps  it  seemed  a  haven  of  peace  and  joy.  To  everybody 
it  became  a  home. 

Josiah  Marvel  of  Richmond,  Indiana,  an  Earlham  grad- 
uate, was  put  in  charge  of  this  hostel  and  at  once  revealed 
marked  capacity  for  his  interesting  work.  He  took  a  real 
interest  in  all  the  men.  He  was  not  only  provider,  enter- 
tainer, and  host,  but,  more  than  that,  a  friend  to  all  who 
came  to  the  Hostel.     William  C.  Biddle  lived  with  the  men 


138  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

in  the  Hostel  and  entered  into  all  that  concerned  not  only 
their  work  but  their  life  as  well.  Lillie  F.  Rhoads  (Mrs. 
Charles  J.  Rhoads)  and  her  cousin,  Anita  Bliss,  of  New 
York,  came  nearly  every  day  to  the  Hostel,  usually  in  time 
to  serve  afternoon  tea  to  the  men  who  could  be  there.  They 
looked  after  their  mending  and  in  a  multitude  of  ways 
they  brought  a  beautiful  atmosphere  of  home  and  fellow- 
ship to  the  Hostel.  Hither  came  the  little  groups  of  men  as 
they  arrived  from  America,  and  from  here  was  made  the 
departure  of  those  who  returned  to  America  during  the 
period  covered  by  the  lease  of  the  Hostel;  here  were  held 
the  Sunday  evening  meetings  for  the  group  of  Friends  in 
Paris,  and  here,  again,  were  celebrated  many  occasions  both 
of  joy  and  sorrow  which  touched  the  lives  of  individuals 
and  groups.  Here  in  the  Hostel  in  January,  1919,  was  held 
the  first  session  of  the  continental  monthly  meeting,  estab- 
lished by  the  authority  of  the  London  Meeting  for  Suffer- 
ings, and  consisting  of  the  Friends  composing  the  Mission 
and  others  who  wished  to  join  in  fellowship  with  them. 
Soon  after  the  signing  of  the  armistice  and  the  closing  of 
the  work  of  the  Red  Cross,  the  men  in  Unit  No.  2  were 
absorbed  into  the  Mission. 

Besides  the  Hostel  there  was  another  famous  living  center 
for  the  workers,  the  Hotel  Britannique  in  Rue  Victoria. 
This  far  outdated  the  Hostel,  having  been  in  operation  long 
before  our  American  workers  began  to  arrive.  It  was  for 
both  men  and  women  who  belonged  to  the  Mission  and  was 
managed  by  the  Mission  itself.  At  different  times  the  chief 
housekeeper  of  the  Britannique  was  selected  from  the  list  of 
American  women  in  the  Unit,  though  more  usually  the 
menage  was  in  care  of  an  English  Friend.  The  group 
living  at  the  Britannique  was  composed  of  men  and  women 
from  both  countries,  with  an  occasional  Canadian  or  Aus- 


IN  PARIS  AT  THE  CENTER  139 

tralian  added  for  good  measure.  When  the  Hostel  was  not 
in  operation  meetings  were  held  at  the  Britannique,  and 
here,  likewise,  many  passing  events  and  occasions  of  interest 
took  place.  The  Hotel  Britannique  will  always  be  a  center 
crowded  with  memories  for  all  members  of  the  Mission,  and 
both  centers  plaj^ed  an  important  role  in  the  history  of  our 
work. 

As  I  have  said,  there  were  times  of  sorrow  as  well  as  of 
joy,  and  it  should  be  added  there  were  many  times  of 
anxiety  and  suspense.  For  months  Paris  was  a  sphere  of 
constant  danger.  Our  workers  who  were  in  Paris  in  periods 
of  bombardment  or  air-raids,  lived  night  and  day  exposed 
to  bomb  and  shell.  The  Hostel  was  leased  to  us  because 
the  students  had  felt  forced  to  vacate  it  and  to  go  to  places 
of  safety.  No  one  ever  knew  when  one  of  the  death-dealing 
missiles  might  cleave  through  one  of  our  homes,  but  we  have 
cause  for  great  thanksgiving  that  no  member  of  the  Mission 
was  struck  down  by  the  weapons  from  the  skies.  More 
dangerous  still  was  the  pestilence  in  the  form  of  influenza. 
This  invaded  all  centers  and  brought  many  of  our  workers 
to  a  condition  of  gravity.  There  were  days  of  anxious 
watching,  and  a  few  of  the  beloved  fellowship  were  taken 
away  into  the  silence.  Walter  Carrol  Brinton,  a  fine  de- 
voted youth,  well-equipped,  full  of  promise  and  with  a  year 
of  splendid  service  behind  him,  was  taken  from  the  group  in 
the  Chateau  Hospital  at  Sermaize.  Ezra  Moore,  of  North 
Carolina,  was  stricken  do\\Ti  just  as  he  was  sailing  for  home 
from  Brest.  Earlier  in  the  history  of  our  work,  before 
the  influenza  came,  another  member  was  suddenly  taken 
from  us  through  an  automobile  accident  which  endangered 
other  lives  also.  This  was  Daniel  Arthur  Compton  of  Plain- 
field,  New  Jersey.  He  was  one  of  the  original  Haverford 
Unit,  a  bright,  happy  spirit,  an  excellent  influence,  and  a 


140  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

member  who  was  greatly  missed  when  the  sad  event  removed 
him  from  the  fellowship.  Others  who  are  happily  still  left 
to  complete  their  career  had  narrow  escapes  and  passed 
through  close  crises.  A  few  of  the  men  will  always  bear 
the  marks  of  injuries  received.  Some  came  into  too  close 
contact  with  the  revolving  saws  or  with  the  planer  and 
some  suffered  from  the  explosives  left  behind  by  the  armies 
on  the  fields  where  they  worked.  While  our  sympathy  is 
abundant  for  those  who  had  to  pass  through  hard  experi- 
ences, we  must  feel  at  the  same  time  deep  thanksgiving  that 
the  catastrophes  were  so  few  and  that  so  many  out  of  the 
large  force  of  workers  came  through  unscathed. 

All  told,  the  American  working  force  that  came  into  Paris 
and  was  sifted  out  for  the  various  types  of  work  in  the 
outlying  zones  amounted  to  six  hundred  persons.  Of 
these  about  five  hundred  and  fifty  were  men  and  slightly 
over  fifty  were  women.  It  seems  an  unfair  proportion, 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  work  in  the  main 
was  agriculture  and  reconstruction,  and  secondly  that 
the  young  men  who  were  of  draft  age  were  eager  to  find 
service  abroad  where  they  could  reveal  by  deeds  of  love  the 
spirit  which  was  in  them,  and  they  naturally  received  es- 
pecial attention  on  the  part  of  the  Service  Committee.  We 
always  sent,  however,  all  the  women  workers  for  whom  we 
received  calls  from  Paris  and  for  whom  they  had  openings 
for  service.  It  was  a  definite  policy  that  no  woman  should 
go  into  that  maelstrom  unless  there  was  positive  evidence 
that  her  skillful  hands  were  needed  and  that  she  could  do 
something  far  more  important  in  France  than  she  could  in 
America. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  visit  all  the  equipes  in  the 
winter  of  1918-1919.  My  first  concern  was  to  note  the 
morale  of  the  workers,  to  discover  what  spirit  animated  them 


IN  PARIS  AT  THE  CENTER  141 

and  to  see  what  effect  the  months  of  work  had  had  upon 
their  lives.  The  impression  which  I  formed  was  expressed 
as  follows :  "I  find  our  workers  much  deepened  in  life  and 
character.  They  have  lived  in  a  world  full  of  difficulties, 
and  they  have  had  temptations  of  an  unusual  sort,  but  they 
are  beyond  question  stronger  and  better  persons  because  of 
their  experiences.  They  almost  never  talk  about  them- 
selves. They  do  not  analyze  what  has  been  happening 
within  themselves.  They  do  not  talk  either  about  their 
growth  in  spirit  or  about  their  enlarged  vision.  They  focus 
their  attention  on  their  work  and  they  are  for  the  most 
part  unconscious  about  their  'insides,'  like  those  people 
in  the  parable  of  the  great  surprise,  who  asked,  with  per- 
fect simplicity,  'When  saw  we  thee  hungry  and  fed  thee, 
or  thirsty  and  gave  thee  drink,  or  when  saw  we  thee  naked 
and  clothed  thee,  sick  or  in  prison  and  visited  thee ! ' 

"I  saw,  however,  in  man  after  man,  and  woman  after 
woman,  an  increased  depth  of  life,  a  richer  nature  and  a 
more  dedicated  spirit.  They  have  found  themselves.  They 
have  discovered  how  to  get  out  of  their  more  or  less  self- 
centered  lives  and  to  make  themselves  instruments  of  real 
service  to  others  and  transmitters  of  a  spirit  of  love.  Some 
of  them  went  over  before  they  quite  knew  their  own  minds. 
They  were  confronted  by  a  situation  unlike  any  they  had 
ever  met  before.  They  were  patriotic,  full  of  love  for  their 
country,  and  solidly  opposed  to  that  spirit  of  ruthlessness 
which  had  destroyed  Belgium  and  carried  such  awful  havoc 
into  the  prosperous  towns  of  Northern  France.  But  they 
were  at  the  same  time  sincerely  and  profoundly  opposed  to 
the  entire  method  of  war.  They  had  never  thought  out 
their  faith  and  conviction.  They  held  it  as  they  held  many 
other  deep-seated  religious  views  and  positions  that  had 
come  into  their  lives  almost  with  their  mother's  milk.     They 


142  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

had  always  assumod  that  these  truths  were  so,  but  they  did 
not  know  why  they  were  so.  They  could  not  give  a  reason 
for  the  faith  that  was  in  them.  Suddenly  they  found  them- 
selves face  to  face  with  the  most  momentous  issues  of  life. 
They  had  to  decide  where  they  would  stand,  and  the  choice 
forced  them  down  to  the  deepest  roots  of  their  being. 

' '  Many  of  those  who  volunteered  for  the  service  of  love  in 
France  did  it  because  they  felt  in  their  souls  that  they  could 
not  do  otherwise.  They  could  not  run  counter  to  the  faith 
that  had  slowly  been  formed  within  them.  There  were 
others,  however,  who  did  not  see  their  way  as  clearly  or  as 
surely  as  that.  They  only  knew  that  they  hated  war  and 
wanted  to  avoid  having  any  direct  share  in  it  if  possible. 
The  service  in  France  was  to  them  a  way  out  of  the  stem 
dilemma  and  they  took  it  without  thinking  out  the  main 
problem  or  settling  the  central  issue.  A  few  of  them  soon 
found  that  they  were  not  in  their  right  place,  and  they 
changed  over  to  other  types  of  service.  Most  of  them,  on 
the  other  hand,  living  near  neighbors  to  the  horrors  of  war, 
thought  through  the  entire  moral  problem  and  re-formed 
their  faith  on  a  higher  level  and  deepened  their  conviction 
with  first  hand  positive  insight. 

"The  arrival  of  groups  of  men  who  had  stood  the  long, 
hard  tests  of  the  army  camps,  the  court  martial,  the  guard 
house,  the  prison  at  Leavenworth  or  Riley,  brought  into  the 
cqiiipes  a  fresh,  new  energy  of  faith  and  had  the  effect  of 
raising  the  level  and  morale  of  the  whole  body  of  workers. 
There  may  still  be  wavering  individuals  and  there  may  be 
here  and  there  a  man  who  had  stayed  on  in  France  because 
it  was  the  line  of  least  resistance.  But  if  such  are  there,  I 
did  not  discover  them.  I  found  men  of  genuine  faith  and 
conviction  who  were  working  out  with  head  and  hands  and 
heart  the  clear  insight  which  their  experience  had  formed 


IN  PARIS  AT  THE  CENTER  143 

within  them.  They  went  over  immature  and  inarticulate ; 
they  are  coming  back  men  who  have  been  tested  in  the  fire 
and  are  now,  as  the  steel-makers  say,  'bloom-fumaced.' 

"They  are  too,  I  think,  equally  clarified  and  deepened  in 
their  religious  experience.  It  is  never  possible  to  verify 
sweeping  conclusions  and  in  any  case  religion  is  an  affair  of 
the  individual  soul  and  not  of  groups  and  bunches  of  people 
taken  in  the  mass.  I  can  only  say  that  I  talked  with  many 
who  have  been  drawing  closer  to  God  for  strength  and 
power,  and  who  have  been  learning  far  from  home  and 
friends  and  early  influences,  that  love  has  no  frontiers  and 
that  it  works  even  when  no  other  method  does. ' ' 

With  this  brief  review  of  the  methods  of  organization 
and  conditions  of  life  and  work  in  Paris,  we  are  now  ready 
to  turn  to  the  concrete  tasks  in  the  working  zones  where  the 
Mission  has  had  its  fields  of  operation. 


CHAPTER  XI 

MEDICAL  WORK 

The  health  condition  of  the  civilian  population  in  the 
devastated  areas  of  France  was  appalling  and  became  ever 
more  serious  as  year  by  year  the  tragedy  accumulated. 
Everything  was  done  that  could  be  done  to  give  prompt  care 
and  attention  to  the  wounds  and  illnesses  of  the  soldiers, 
but  so  enormous  were  the  tasks  and  problems  to  be  grappled 
with  that  the  suffering  peasants  and  the  diseased  and  dying 
children  were  overlooked.  Every  wrecked  village  had  its 
long  tale  of  woes.  Under-feeding  brought,  as  it  always  does, 
its  terrible  toll  of  ills  which  were  vastly  increased  because 
the  local  doctor  was  no  longer  there  to  help.  It  was  natural 
and  right,  therefore,  that  Friends  should  provide,  from  the 
first  days  of  their  work  of  relief,  for  the  medical  and  surgi- 
cal care  of  the  civilians  left  in  the  wake  of  the  great  tornado 
of  war.  The  English  Friends,  at  every  point  of  their  work, 
showed  fine  humanitarian  instinct  joined  with  much  wis- 
dom. They  got  straight  at  the  central  needs  of  the  situa- 
tion and  blazed  the  road  in  precisely  the  right  place.  When 
we  merged  with  them  in  the  autumn  of  1917  we  found  our- 
selves connected  with  a  very  efficiently  organized  method 
of  relief  in  full  operation,  with  a  splendid  system  of  hos- 
pitals for  various  types  of  cases. 

The  most  impressive  single  center  in  the  hospital  system 
at  that  time  was  the  Maternity  Hospital  at  Chalons-sur 
Mame.  This  had  been  established  in  the  awful  days  of 
chaos  immediately  after  the  first  Battle  of  the  Mame.    No 

144 


MEDICAL  WORK  145 

other  form  of  relief  seemed  at  this  time  more  urgent  than 
that  of  providing  a  quiet  retreat  and  skillful  helpers  for 
expectant  mothers  whose  homes  had  been  crushed  like  an 
egg-shell  and  who  were  in  many  instances  shelterless  and 
desolate.  Dr.  Hilda  Clark  of  England  was  the  leader  in 
this  merciful  plan  of  assistance.  Edith  M.  Pye,  a  nurse  of 
large  experience  and  rare  skill,  and  a  woman  of  fine  quali- 
ties of  character  and  ability,  became  the  head  of  this  home 
for  mothers  and  little  children.  A  number  of  our  American 
workers  were  joined  to  the  Maternity  Hospital  staff  and  be- 
came closely  identified  witli  its  work.  The  importance  of 
Chalons  as  a  city  and  its  position  as  a  railway  center  ex- 
posed it  to  furious  bombardments.  It  was  shelled  both  from 
long  range  guns  and  from  the  sky.  ]\Iany  a  child  came 
into  the  world  in  this  place  of  "nativity"  at  Chalons  amid 
the  din  of  explosives  and  was  greeted  with  noises  which 
drowned  its  cries  of  surprise  and  wonder.  In  the  late  sum- 
mer of  1918  the  danger  from  shells  became  too  great  to  be 
endured  longer.  It  appeared  necessary  to  ''evacuate"  and 
go  to  a  safer  retreat.  Already  eight  hundred  babies  had 
been  born  there.  The  institution  had  grown  to  considerable 
size.  Besides  the  building  occupied  by  the  ''Maternity" 
there  was  a  separate  home  for  the  nurses.  Three  houses  ad- 
joining one  another  and  not  far  distant  from  the  hospital 
were  used  as  a  creche  for  the  little  ones.  There  was  much 
to  move  besides  the  mothers  and  babies,  but  the  motor  lorries 
effected  the  evacuation  without  mishap.  The  new  home 
selected  for  the  hospital  was  at  Mery  about  forty  miles  from 
Chalons,  and  four  cars  full  were  moved  the  first  da}-.  One 
baby  was  born  the  first  evening  at  Mery,  out  of  range  of 
the  guns  and  noise.  Every  hour  the  danger  at  Chalons  was 
increasing.  Miss  Pye's  account  of  what  followed  is  inter- 
esting.    She  wrote  as  follows : 


146  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

"It  had  been  arranged  for  all  the  cars  except  one  to  return 
to  Chalons  for  the  night.  This  was  fortunate,  as  the  offensive 
started  at  midnight;  and  when  the  shells  from  the  long-range 
gun  began  to  fall  in  the  fields  surrounding  the  Maternity,  the 
few  remaining  babies  and  children,  who  were  to  have  been  sent 
down  the  next  day,  were  packed  into  the  cars  and  sent  off  at 
once,  arriving  at  Mery  about  6  a.  m.,  with  the  exception  of  one 
mother  whose  baby  was  bom  during  the  night.  She  was  taken 
down  during  the  course  of  the  day.  The  chauffeurs  were  driving 
or  seeing  to  their  ears  continuously  from  7  a.  m.  on  Sunday  till 
late  Monday  evening,  without  an  hour's  rest  and  very  little  time 
for  meals. 

"The  shelling  from  long-range  guns  continued  all  day  on  Mon- 
day and  up  till  4  a.  m.  on  Tuesday,  the  shells  bursting  all  around 
the  Maternity.  Very  little  actual  damage  was  done  by  them, 
though  the  explosions  were  objectionably  noisy. 

"On  Monday  night  the  first  air  raid  took  place,  lasting  about 
two  hours.  Durmg  this,  another  baby  was  born  whose  mother 
had  not  been  fit  to  send  on  Monday.  Early  Tuesday  morning  the 
cars  took  this  mother  and  two  others  with  new-bom  babies  from 
the  town  down  to  safety.  On  Tuesday  night  a  squadron  started 
bombing  at  10  p.  m.  and  went  on  till  midnight,  again  from  2  a.  m. 
to  2 :30,  and  from  3  a.  m.  to  3 :30.  A  near-by  hospital  was  badly 
wrecked,  and  the  one  patient  who  had  not  yet  been  evacuated 
was  taken  through  to  St.  Dizier  by  our  car  on  Wednesday.  The 
group  of  hospitals  on  the  other  side  of  the  Maternity  had  one 
or  two  bombs  in  their  grounds. 

"It  was  obvious  that  a  'poste  de  secours'  at  the  Maternity  was 
no  longer  suitable  for  mothers,  as  it  was  in  such  a  dangerous 
position,  and  the  Prefecture  was  very  glad  to  help  us  to  obtain 
a  little  enclosure  in  one  of  the  big  champagne  caves  under  the 
Cote  de  Troyes,  above  which  are  eighteen  metres  of  earth.  Notice 
was  given  to  the  police,  the  Mairie,  the  Square  and  to  the  other 
caves  that  a  poste  de  secours  would  be  found  there  every  night 
during  the  full  moon,  and  all  expressed  themselves  as  appreeia- 


MEDICAL  WORK  147 

tive  of  the  arrangement.  This  means  taking  all  outfit  down  about 
8 :30  p.  M.  and  remaining  there  till  between  3  and  4  a.  m. 

Wednesday  night  a  baby  was  bom  in  the  cave.  The  mother  and 
baby  were  sent  down  to  Mery  the  next  day,  and  are  doing  ex- 
tremely well.  On  Thursday  night  a  torpedo  fell  in  the  field  at 
about  twenty  metres  from  the  Maternity.  Every  window  in  the 
building  save  two  was  broken,  and  the  tiles  removed  or  broken 
from  about  half  the  roof.  Dr.  Heard,  who  was  sleeping  that  night 
in  her  baraque,  had  a  marvelous  escape,  and  has  fortunately 
not  suffered  in  any  way. 

"Fortunately  all  the  valuable  material  had  been  brought  away 
from  the  'grenier,'  and  thanks  to  the  loan  of  a  motor-lorry  by  the 
American  canteen,  we  were  able  to  send  another  load  to  Mery 
at  once.  For  a  couple  of  days  it  was  possible  to  remain  in  the 
damaged  building,  as  the  weather  was  fine;  but  when  rain  began 
it  was  obviously  impossible,  as  there  was  no  dry  spot.  The  equipe 
has  therefore  removed  into  the  children's  home,  where  two  wards 
with  three  beds  for  emergency  work  have  been  installed.  Volun- 
teers from  the  staff  at  Mery  take  turns  at  present  in  coming  up 
to  Chalons,  where  the  main  work  at  present  consists  in  trying  to 
clear  up  the  mess  at  the  Maternity  and  save  the  remainder  of  the 
stock,  and  in  arranging  for  the  transport  of  patients  to  Mery. 
The  cars  are  continually  in  demand  for  fetching  sick  and  wounded 
into  Chalons,  as  well  as  for  the  transport  of  our  own  mothers." 

As  soon  as  the  danger  from  shells  had  passed  the  return 
to  Chalons  was  undertaken  with  much  joy  and  the  proces- 
sion of  lorries  carried  mothers  and  babies  back  to  the  old 
headquarters.  Here  expectant  mothers  continued  to  come 
through  the  winter  following  the  armistice  and  at  the  time 
of  my  visit  in  January,  1919,  about  eleven  hundred  babies 
had  been  born  in  the  Maternity,  their  mothers  had  found 
care,  skill  and  love  for  their  emergency  and  scores  of  little 
orphans  had  been  carefully  tended  in  the  adjoining  creche. 


148  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Letters  that  only  Frenchwomen  could  write  come  in  from 
past  patients — letters  written  with  a  grace  and  delicate 
humor  tj^pical  of  the  race.  '  ^  I  know  my  Laurette  is  happy 
with  you/'  wrote  one  mother.  ''One  sees  that  all  those 
children  do  very  well,  for  your  nurses  are  very  gentle  and 
very  simple,  too.  They  do  not  wear  shoes  with  Louix  XV 
heels,  like  the  nurses  at  Rheims. "  Another  mother  wrote 
that  she  was  very  sorry  her  daughter  was  too  young  to  enter 
the  hospital  and  train  to  become  a  nurse  like  the  other  ladies 
there.     The  daughter  was  then  six  months  old. 

*'Ma  chere  bonne  Misspaille,"  wrote  another,  thoroughly 
Gallicizing  Miss  Pye's  name.  *'I  am  sending  you  two 
words  to  tell  you  that  I  am  sending  you  a  little  package 
with  two  dozen  fresh  eggs  for  the  sick  children.  I  am  not 
rich,  but  I  can  send  you  some  eggs."  That  was  after 
baby  Georges  had  gone  home.  Two  months  earlier,  when 
the  news  of  Georges'  arrival  had  just  reached  the  farm,  his 
sister  Zelpha  wrote,  "I  am  sending  you  a  little  letter  to 
thank  you  for  the  care  you  have  given  Mamma.  My  little 
brothers  and  sisters  thank  you,  too,  for  Mamma  tells  us  she 
is  very  happy  with  you,  and  that  she  is  better  cared  for  with 
you  than  at  home,  because  there  is  more  to  eat  with  you 
than  here  at  home.  (Signed)  A  little  girl  who  sends  love 
to  you.    Zelpha. ' ' 

The  "Maternity"  has  since  been  endowed  by  Friends, 
put  under  the  care  of  an  international  committee  and  made, 
we  hope,  a  permanent  blessing  for  this  section  of  the  Mame 
Valley.  There  were  two  clinics  for  children  connected 
with  the  medical  center  at  Chalons,  one  at  St.  Remy  and 
the  other  at  Vitry.  Dr.  Heard,  an  American  woman,  who 
went  to  France  under  the  Red  Cross  and  who  was  on  the 
staff  of  the  Chalons  ''Maternity"  was,  during  the  later 
period  of  the  work,  in  charge  of  both  these  clinics.     The 


.  MEDICAL  WORK  149 

children's  Home  at  St.  Remy  was  in  a  large  Chateau  and 
was  a  splendid  work  of  relief. 

A  remarkable  medical  mission  of  a  different  type  had  its 
center  at  Samoens  in  the  Haute  Savoie,  near  the  Italian  and 
Swiss  border,  close  to  Chamonix.  Here  in  the  Hotel  Belle- 
vue  and  its  Annex  Friends  maintained  a  beautiful  conval- 
escent home  for  broken  refugees  and  rapatriees,  i.  e.  for 
women  and  children.  They  were  taken  from  crowded  quar- 
ters in  Paris  or  from  the  mass  of  rapatriees  at  Evian  in  a 
debilitated  condition,  unable  to  recover  health,  strength  or 
spirits.  In  the  glorious  air  of  this  Alpine  home,  with  the 
best  of  care  and  in  an  atmosphere  of  love  they  underwent 
a  great  transformation.  The  place  did  not  have  the  air  of 
an  institution  at  all,  it  was  of  the  nature  of  a  big  family. 
Every  one — housekeeper,  nurses  and  teachers — all  knew  all 
the  patients  and  all  lived  in  happy  fellowship.  The  girl 
refugees  arrived  there  haggard,  pale,  hunted  looking  and 
very  quickly  were  transformed  into  rosy,  happy  looking  per- 
sons. No  one  asked  about  the  tragedies  of  the  past  and  the 
refugees  themselves  seldom  referred  to  their  experiences; 
they  let  the  dead  past  lie  buried  and  turned  toward  life 
once  more.  The  changes  in  health  and  spirit  were  so  strik- 
ing that  it  seemed  almost  like  a  center  of  miracles.  Large 
bands  of  children  came  to  Samoens  also;  twenty-two  came 
at  one  time  from  the  baby  institution  at  St.  Remy.  These 
babies  lived  a  most  happy  life  in  the  sun  and  air,  fed 
plenteously  upon  the  food  their  little  natures  needed. 
This  institution  was  organized  by  Miss  Rhys  of  England 
as  Directress,  assisted  by  Dr.  Martin  of  America.  Here 
a  member  of  our  American  Unit,  Dr.  Marianna  Taylor  of 
St.  Davids,  Pennsylvania,  had  an  important  part  in  the 
work  of  this  convalescent  home  from  April,  1018,  to  October 
of  the  same  year,  when  she  went  to  be  head  of  the  Hospital 


150  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

at  Bettancourt  in  the  Marne,  of  which  we  shall  hear  later. 
A  sanitarium  for  tuberculous  patients  was  carried  on  by 
the  Mission  for  some  time  at  Entremont  where  many  eases 
were  brought  back  to  normal  health.  A  medical  center  was 
maintained  for  refugees  at  Dole,  in  Jura  where  one  of  the 
largest  bands  of  our  workers  was  engaged  in  building  port- 
able houses  and  a  clinical  center  for  refugees  was  in  opera- 
tion for  a  considerable  period  in  Paris,  connected  with  the 
Britannique. 

The  most  extensive  hospital  work,  however,  was  carried 
on  by  the  Mission  in  the  Marne  district  and  later  in  ''the 
Verdun  area. ' '  A  small  hospital  was  opened  at  Sermaize  by 
the  English  Friends  soon  after  their  work  began.  This  was 
called  the  "Source  Hospital,"  from  the  famous  spring 
located  at  Sermaize.  Though  it  was  never  well  housed  and 
had  only  limited  quarters  it  did  a  great  service  for  the  dis- 
tressed region  of  country  around  it.  Here  Doctor  Earp  ren- 
dered a  signal  service.  Here,  too,  Miss  Evans  and  Miss 
Friend,  two  remarkable  English  nurses,  did  signal  service. 
It  was  felt,  however  that  there  was  a  far  greater  medical 
and  surgical  work  to  be  done  in  the  neighborhood  and  when 
Dr.  James  A.  Babbitt,  who  had  gone  over  with  the  Haver- 
ford  Unit,  was  free  to  undertake  the  task,  he  was  asked  to 
create  a  hospital  out  of  the  Chateau  at  Sermaize,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  destroyed  town  from  "the  Source," 
where  our  Marne  headquarters  were  and  where  the  other 
hospital  already  mentioned  was  situated. 

Dr.  Babbitt  arrived  at  the  Chateau  at  the  end  of  Novem- 
ber, 1917,  and  with  a  group  of  splendid  helpers — such  men 
as  Ralston  Thomas,  Francis  Sharpless,  Hugh  McKinstry, 
Weston  Howland  and  Robert  James — and  with  a  very  effi- 
cient house-keeper,  Miss  Kerr,  he  flung  himself,  with  his 
usual  energy,  into  the  task  of  transforming  the  Chateau, 


I 

"'&""! 

'  ,       .1 

M'^ 

5h 

X 

03 
'3- 

o 


MEDICAL  WORK  151 

which  had  suffered  somewhat  from  the  invasion,  into  a  thor- 
oughly modem  hospital.  The  work  went  forward  with 
great  strides.  Our  expert  electrician  and  general  efficiency 
man,  Leslie  Heath,  was  called  upon  to  install  lights,  which 
he  did  with  marked  success.  Patients  began  to  come  almost 
before  there  were  beds  and  as  soon  as  there  was  an  oper- 
ating table  to  use,  Dr.  Babbitt  began  his  surgical  work. 
The  list  of  cases  on  which  he  operated  is  an  amazing  one. 
Very  quickly  the  fame  of  this  kindly,  skillful  doctor  spread 
through  the  region  and  he  found  himself  from  the  first  an 
unspeakably  busy  man.  His  Ford  car  took  him  to  out- 
lying villages  within  a  very  wide  area,  where  he  visited  in- 
dividual patients  or  held  village  clinics,  and  when  necessary 
the  Chateau  ambulance  brought  the  cases  in  for  treatment 
in  that  Hospital. 

The  number  of  beds  kept  steadily  increasing  and  so  also 
did  the  number  of  nurses,  who  were  under  Sara  Cunning- 
ham of  Philadelphia,  a  most  efficient  head-nui-se.  The  Hos- 
pital reached  its  highest  capacity  about  the  time  of  the 
Armistice  when  it  had  a  hundred  beds  and  about  seventy- 
five  patients.  The  total  number  of  operations  performed 
was  about  twelve  hundred.  Out  of  this  number  less  than 
twenty  died.  These  operations  covered  a  very  wide  range 
of  ills.  There  were  over  forty  successful  appendix  opera- 
tions, over  eighty  for  radical  hernia,  a  number  for  goitre, 
several  for  mastoid  and  some  for  cataract,  though  these  lat- 
ter were  not  always  successful  on  account  of  the  long 
neglected  condition  of  the  sufferer  and  the  resulting  degen- 
eration of  the  affected  organs.  The  affection  of  the  patients 
for  Dr.  Babbitt  was  very  marked  and  before  he  had  been 
long  engaged  in  his  work  of  mercy  the  appreciation  in  which 
he  was  held  by  the  people  of  the  district  was  touching  to 
see. 


152  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

One  sample  of  the  numerous  testimonials  of  loving  ap- 
preciation may  be  given  here.  It  is  from  the  Cure  of 
Brizeaux  who  was  treated  in  the  Chateau  Hospital.  He 
wrote  as  follows  on  his  return  home : 

^'Dear  Doctor:  It  is  now  a  week  since  you  kindly  conveyed 
me  home  after  a  period  of  47  days  in  your  hospital,  during  which 
time  I  was  surrounded  by  every  care.  I  am  afraid  I  am  late  in 
expressing  my  heartfelt  gratitude  and  my  affectionate  thanks:  I 
can  do  so  from  the  depths  of  my  heart,  remembering  your  great 
care  for  me  and  the  constant  nursing  attention  given  by  the 
members  of  your  staff — particularly  those  attached  to  the  men's 
ward. 

"One  leaves  the  hospitable  roof  of  the  'Society  of  Christian 
Friends'  (which  so  well  bears  out  its  name)  with  regret,  even 
though  one  is  anxious  to  get  back  home.  It  is  good  to  be  near 
you !  The  Bishop  of  Verdun  has  been  much  touched  by  all  your 
kindness  to  me  and  asks  me  to  hand  to  you  in  his  name  the 
modest  sum  enclosed  (100  francs) ;  &c., 

"E.  Claude." 

During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1918  all  the  medical 
work  of  the  Mission  was  under  the  care  of  a  committee  of 
three,  consisting  of  Dr.  Babbitt  as  chairman,  Dr.  Earp  and 
Edith  Pye.  In  October  of  that  year  Dr.  Babbitt  was  ap- 
pointed head  of  the  medical  department  with  the  oversight 
of  all  the  hospital  and  clinical  work  of  the  Mission.  This 
position  of  responsibility  added  considerably  to  the  'doctor 's 
already  heavy  load,  but  he  carried  it  successfully  and  made 
important  reports  to  all  the  regular  meetings  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee.  In  the  near  neighborhood  of  Sermaize 
there  were  two  interesting  medical  centers,  one  at  Charmont 
where  was  situated  a  home  for  elderly  women  (to  be  spoken 
of  further  in  the  chapter  on  Relief)  and  a  station  at  Givry- 
en-Argonne  where  a  trained  nurse  was  stationed  with  a  good 


MEDICAL  WORK  153 

dispensary.  At  Bar-le-Duc  an  important  medical  center 
was  maintained  in  connection  with  the  Relief  station  situa- 
ted there.  About  seven  miles  from  Sermaize,  in  the  Cha- 
teau of  Bettancourt,  a  large  and  successful  hospital  was 
maintained  mainly  for  women  and  children,  where  Gertrude 
Pirn  did  pioneer  work.  Dr.  Marianna  Taylor  of  our  Ameri- 
can group  took  charge  of  this  hospital  in  November,  1918, 
and  continued  her  excellent  services  at  Bettancourt  until 
the  hospital  closed  in  May,  1919.  During  this  period  Dr. 
Taylor  attended  to  the  medical  cases  in  twenty  outlying 
villages,  which  she  usually  visited  by  motorcycle.  When 
Dr.  Babbitt  resigned  from  the  Mission  in  January,  1919,  to 
join  the  Red  Cross  Commission,  appointed  to  carry  relief 
to  the  Russian  prisoners  stranded  in  Germany,  Dr.  Taylor 
was  selected  to  be  his  successor  as  head  of  the  medical  de- 
partment, which  at  that  time  was  reorganizing  the  hospital 
work  and  the  medical  and  surgical  relief  for  the  new  dis- 
trict— the  ''Verdun  area,"  where  our  main  work  lay  for 
the  year  1919.  At  the  same  time  Dr.  Jesse  Packer,  who 
had  been  Dr.  Babbitt's  assistant  at  the  Chateau  Hospital, 
became  his  successor  as  head  of  the  new  hospital  which  took 
Its  place,  the  Chateau  being  re-occupied  by  its  owner  in 
January,  1919.  This  new  hospital  was  at  Brizeaux  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  district  which  I  have  called  the  ''Ver- 
dun area."  It  was  opened  in  the  barracks  which  had  for- 
merly been  used  for  a  hospital  by  the  American  army. 
Much  of  the  furnishings  and  material  which  had  been  em- 
ployed at  the  Chateau  were  moved  in  lorries  b}'  members 
of  the  Mission  to  the  new  site,  while  Leslie  Heath  re-installed 
the  electric  light  system,  transported  from  Sermaize. 

Dr.  Packer  was  soon  joined  by  Dr.  Stephens  from  Marion, 
Indiana,  who  was  a  very  ready,  skillful  surgeon  and  who 
found,  as  Dr.  Babbitt  had  done,  plenty  of  opportunity  to 


154  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

employ  his  skill.  The  new  Brizeaiix  Hospital  covered  a 
very  wide  territory,  reaching  even  as  far  as  Rheims,  minis- 
tering mainly  to  the  great  host  of  returning  refugees,  com- 
ing at  length  to  their  own  villages,  which  our  men  had  sup- 
plied with  portable  houses.  By  middle  summer  the  hospital 
moved  once  more  further  north,  this  time  to  the  central 
town  of  the  area,  Clermont-en-Argonne.  The  hospital 
was  now  installed  in  the  spacious  structure  which  had 
long  served  as  a  hospital  for  the  region  and  which  had 
formerly  been  maintained  by  Roman  Catholic  Sisters. 
The  war  had  forced  them  away.  During  the  period 
of  American  occupation  and  while  the  fighting  was  go- 
ing forward  in  the  Argonne  this  ancient  hospital  had 
been  used  as  headquarters  of  the  American  army.  It 
was  left,  after  the  advance  and  transfer  of  the  army,  in 
a  decidedly  "fallen"  state.  The  rooms  had  been  hastily 
stripped  and  they  were  strewn  with  rubbish  and  accumu- 
lated debris.  The  building  was  overrun  with  rats,  as  were 
all  buildings  of  the  region,  but  the  possibilities  of  the  place 
were  at  once  obvious  and  the  surroundings  were  by  nature 
very  beautiful.  The  workers  in  the  Mission,  already  accus- 
tomed to  do  impossible  tasks,  undertook  to  cleanse  this 
augean  stable  and  to  make  it  pure,  clean,  beautiful  and  fit 
for  the  troops  of  patients  who  were  sure  to  come  to  it. 
They  did  their  work  well.  No  sign  remained  of  the  former 
desolation.  The  rats  were  eliminated.  An  atmosphere  of 
home  was  soon  to  be  given  to  the  place  and  once  more  as  in 
the  past  it  was  to  become  the  scene  of  gentle,  loving  minis- 
tration. The  lorries  again  moved  the  furnishings  which 
had  served  the  Chateau  and  Brizeaux  and  with  some  new 
material  and  supplies  the  Clermont  Hospital  was  well 
equipped.  It  was  intended  from  the  beginning  to  have  this 
a  permanent  hospital.     The  Committee  proposed  to  fit  it 


MEDICAL  WORK  155 

out  so  that  it  could  serve  the  entire  area  under  our  recon- 
struction, until  our  medical  work  was  no  longer  needed  and 
then  they  planned  that  it  should  be  turned  over  with  all  the 
installed  equipment  to  the  Sisters.  This  has  since  been 
done.  Both  Dr.  Packer  and  Dr.  Stephens  have  returned  to 
America  with  their  splendid  work  accomplished  and  Cler- 
mont now  has  its  fine  Hospital — a  source  of  love  and  healing, 
let  us  hope,  for  many  years  to  come.  Dr.  Alethea  J.  Bolton 
was  the  head  of  the  medical  department  of  the  Mission  dur- 
ing the  closing  of  the  French  work. 

An  extensive  amount  of  dental  work  was  also  carried  on, 
especially  during  1919.  The  long  period  of  neglect  had  re- 
duced the  health  of  both  old  and  young  to  a  serious  condi- 
tion, entailing  much  suffering.  Dr.  Matteson,  an  English 
dentist,  did  an  immense  service  in  this  field,  going  out  in 
his  car  over  a  wide  area  and  helping  thousands  of  persons. 
Dr.  Maris  and  Dr.  Dorland  of  the  American  Unit  brought 
relief  and  comfort  to  a  large  number  of  people.  Dr.  Maris 
treated  five  hundred  members  of  the  Mission,  over  eight 
hundred  French  people  and  about  two  hundred  German 
prisoners.  No  less  was  the  value  of  the  work  which  was 
supplied  for  the  improvement  of  eyes.  Spectacles  and  eye- 
glasses had  often  been  lost  or  broken  in  the  crisis  of  evacua- 
tion and  many  were  without  the  ability  to  read.  Our 
opticians  carried  on,  again,  during  the  year  of  1919,  a  very 
important  work  in  this  line,  which  had  been  begun,  as  most 
good  things  had  been,  by  the  English  Friends.  Dr.  Wild 
and  ]\Ir.  Iloeppner  held  clinics  and  fitted  glasses  to  a  large 
number  of  patients  who  found  great  joy  in  recovering  once 
more  their  power  to  read. 

This  brief  sketch  gives  little  idea  of  the  value  of  the 
medical  and  surgical  work  of  the  Mission  during  our  period. 
It  presents,  and  that  very  imperfectly,  only  the  outside  view. 


156  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

It  does  not  and  cannot  give  the  vivid,  inside  appreciation 
of  these  years  of  ministration.  What  impressed  the  visitor 
most  at  any  one  of  these  centers  of  healing  were  the  love 
and  friendship  so  lavishly  bestowed  upon  the  patients  and 
inmates.  They  had  come  in  sorrow,  with  their  burden  of 
pain  and  affliction,  and  they  found  warm  human  hearts  as 
well  as  skillful  hands,  and  when  they  returned  to  their  own 
again  they  had  not  only  been  healed  but  also  "restored." 
Something  of  the  Christ  came  to  them  as  they  lay  on  their 
beds  in  these  hospitals  and  they  found  a  new  peace  and 
power  for  their  weary,  distressed  souls. 

Dr.  Richard  Cabot  of  Boston  in  a  personal  letter  paid  the 
following  remarkable  tribute  to  our  workers : 

"We  have  hitched  up  our  dispensary  with  the  Quakers  who  are 
working  in  Paris  and  outside  it  for  refugees  in  a  spirit  not 
equalled  on  the  whole  by  any  group  I  have  seen  out  here.  They 
work  with  their  hands,  build  houses,  help  with  the  plowing,  do 
plumbing  work  when  plumbers  are  unobtainable,  sleep  in  quarters 
that  others  find  too  hard,  save  money  everywhere,  and  because 
they  know  what  simple  living  is,  are  the  best  of  ease  workers  in 
city  charities,  never  pauperizing,  never  offending.  They  work 
in  the  true  religious  spirit,  asking  no  glory  and  no  position, 
sharing  the  hardships  they  alleviate,  and  earning  everywhere  such 
gratitude  from  the  French  that  the  government  has  offered  to 
turn  over  a  whole  department  to  them  if  they  will  undertake 
all-  the  work  of  reconstruction  there.  Others  working  here  in 
France  have  friends  and  enemies;  the  Friends  have  only  friends, 
and  I  hear  only  praise  of  their  work  and  can  give  only  praise 
from  what  I  have  seen.  .  .  .  My,  but  they  are  refreshing  folks. 
The  English  and  American  Quaker  work  together  and  with  the 
Red  Cross  admirably." 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   WORK   OP   THE   AGRICULTURAL   DEPARTMENT 

The  agricultural  work  was  of  many  varieties  according 
to  the  character  and  needs  of  the  region  in  question.  The 
central  aim  of  course  was  to  put  the  devastated  land  back 
into  cultivation,  to  rescue  the  neglected  areas  from  their 
small  forest  of  weeds  and  to  repair  the  havoc  of  trenches, 
shell  holes  and  barbed  wire  entanglements.  A  large  num- 
ber of  our  American  workers  were  first-class  farmers.  They 
had  the  instinct  and  the  skill  to  know  what  to  do  with  land. 
They  were  confronted  with  unusual  conditions,  but  they 
rose  to  meet  them  with  fine  fertility  of  mind  and  energy. 
Like  most  of  the  other  work  into  which  the  men  threw  them- 
selves on  their  first  arrival  in  France  the  agricultural  work 
had  been  well  organized  and  planned  by  the  English 
Friends.  This  department  was  under  the  direction  of  Ed- 
ward AYest  and  its  management  throughout  was  able  and 
forceful.  The  main  section  in  which  agricultural  work  was 
being  carried  on  when  our  American  boys  joined  the  work 
was  the  Mame  Valley,  but  almost  at  once  the  recovered  area 
in  the  Somme  was  thrown  open  for  cultivation.  It  had 
suffered  terribly  from  the  operations  of  the  war  and  still 
more  from  the  deliberate  devastation  during  the  famous 
*'Hindenburg  retreat."  This  had  been  a  very  fertile  area 
and  our  workers  were  keen  to  bring  it  quickly  back  into 
effective  cultivation  and  to  make  it  produce  enough  not  only 
for  the  support  of  its  own  returning  population  but  for  the 

157 


158  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

assistance  of  less  favored  parts  of  the  country.  The  tragedy 
of  its  reconquest  and  the  temporary  defeat  of  the  plans  of 
the  Mission  in  the  Somme  and  Aisne  will  be  told  later. 

We  must  now  turn  to  consider  some  of  the  types  of  farm- 
ing in  La  helle  France.  The  most  important  thing  to  pro- 
duce was  breadstuff,  and  our  farming  squads  therefore  al- 
ways endeavored  to  get  as  much  land  into  wheat  as  possible. 
They  were  well  supplied  with  tractors,  with  ''gang-plows'' 
and  with  modem  harrows  for  tractor  service.  With  this 
equipment  it  was  possible  to  prepare  large  areas  of  the  soil 
and  to  put  in  a  greater  quantity  of  wheat  than  the  peasants 
could  have  dreamed  of  doing  by  their  more  ancient  methods. 
They  were  temperamentally  verj^  conservative  and  wedded 
to  their  own  ways  of  farming,  but  they  were  quite  willing  to 
have  our  workers  plow  in  the  American  way  so  long  as  the 
wheat  was  actually  sowed  and  garnered.  They  often  came 
out  in  large  numbers — women,  children  and  old  men — to  see 
the  tractor  carrying  its  fine  row  of  plows  through  their  soil. 
There  were  no  fences  or  hedges  between  the  peasants'  fields 
and  therefore  the  men  could  plow  very  large  sections  at  a 
stretch.  It  was  like  a  return  to  the  primitive  way  of  com- 
munal life,  before  the  god  of  boundaries  became  such  a 
powerful  divinity.  There  were  other  places  where  the 
farming  followed  more  nearly  the  old  pre-war  methods.  In 
some  sections  there  were  horses  or  at  least  cows  available 
for  plowing  and  harrowing  and  sometimes  the  ''holdings" 
of  the  peasants  were  individually  tilled  according  to  their 
own  wishes  and  desires. 

The  reaping  at  harvest  time  was  another  great  agricul- 
tural event  and  this  was  for  the  most  part  done  with  modem 
reapers  on  a  large  scale.  Then  at  a  later  period,  usually 
during  the  winter  months,  the  threshing  was  done,  as  will 
be  told  in  due  time.     Many  other  crops  besides  wheat  were 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  DEPARTMENT         159 

raised,  in  fact  the  usual  variety  of  vegetables  was  culti- 
vated and  potatoes  naturally  received  the  proper  amount  of 
respect  that  now  belongs  to  their  no  longer  plebeian  clan. 

There  were  centers  for  raising  rabbits  for  distribution 
among  the  peasant  families.  There  were  poultry  farms  for 
producing  eggs,  chickens  for  food  and  chickens  for  distribu- 
tion. There  were  bee  farms  for  supplying  both  hone}^  and 
hives  of  bees.  There  were  milk  farms  for  providing  pure 
milk  for  the  children  of  the  district. 

One  of  the  interesting  experiments  carried  on  by  the 
Mission  was  the  maintenance  of  a  large  milk  and  poultry 
farm  and  center  for  loaning  agricultural  implements  at 
Venault-les-Dames,  a  few  miles  from  Sermaize,  where  a 
group  of  American  boys  showed  their  skill  and  devotion. 
The  later  work  in  the  Verdun  area  will  be  mentioned  when 
that  extensive  project  is  reviewed,  Some  glimpses  of  the 
work  as  it  went  on  in  the  different  areas  will  now  be  given. 
The  agricultural  work  was  done  in  the  departments  of 
Marne,  Aisne,  Somme,  Meuse  and  Ardennes. 

One  of  our  workers  has  given  this  picture  of  the  work  in 
Gruny,  an  important  center  in  the  area  released  by  the 
German  retreat  made  in  1917 : 

"Gruny  is  French  through  and  through.  The  principal  avenue 
is  lined  with  Lombardy  poplars  until  it  reaches  the  village.  The 
village  itself  is  not  large.  One  could  barely  see  it  from  the  rail- 
road if  it  were  not  for  a  small  freight  car  standing  on  a  siding. 
About  a  hundred  and  fifty  tongues  once  chattered  in  its  halls  of 
fame  and  twice  as  many  wooden  shoes  clattered  down  its  muddy 
streets.  But  since  the  rough  invader  has  swept  these  tiny 
homes  of  all  that  once  did  bloom  there,  and  trampled  down  the 
work  of  centuries,  hardly  eighty  souls  have  returned  to  brave 
their  losses.  Gardens  gone,  churches  gone,  chimneys  gone,  roofs 
gone.     Were  these  piles  of  brick  a  village  or  are  they  a  huge 


160  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

brickyard  and  for  sale?  One  is  tempted  to  ask  this  question 
on  first  arrival.  No,  each  pile  of  bricks,  each  fallen  house  has 
woven  around  it  a  mystery,  a  romance  of  a  century.  See  the 
stone  in  yonder  gable.  It  is  marked  1813.  On  either  side  is  a 
newly-made  wheel.  Evidently  a  wheel-wright  once  lived  there. 
Again,  notice  the  plaster  on  the  interior.  It  is  made  of  clay 
and  straw.  The  roof  is  either  of  tile  or  slate.  A  shell  pene- 
trating the  roof,  and  bursting,  has  sent  the  tile  in  all  directions 

and  toppled  over  the  chimney.     Thanks  to  the  faithful, 

many  of  these  chimneys  stand  straight  again.  Splintered  sills 
are  being  renewed.  Thus  one  finds  need  of  masonry,  carpentry, 
roofing  and  what  not.  It  is  a  jolly  good  chance  for  all-round 
development." 

This  is  a  picture  of  a  typical  French  village  as  it  appeared 
to  the  young  Reconstruction  worker  in  1917.  He  saw  before 
him  the  ruins  of  a  strange,  and  to  him,  picturesque  life, 
chiefly  symbolized  by  broken  ancient  houses,  and  his  work 
appeared  plain  before  him,  to  rebuild  the  broken  houses,  or 
make  substitutes.  The  background  of  the  village  life,  as 
it  had  been  in  normal  times,  was  usually  unknovni  to  him, 
and  his  thought  was  rather  of  restoration  than  of  recon- 
struction. Yet  reconstruction  of  a  very  thorough  order  was 
and  is  necessary.  The  French  villages  were  not  designed 
upon  a  plan  so  good  that  the  new  houses  could  be  simply 
placed  upon  the  sites  of  the  old  and  all  would  be  well.  On 
the  contrary,  house  was  placed  alongside  house  as  closely 
as  possible,  with  no  idea  of  allowing  for  the  free  circulation 
of  the  sweet  country  air,  or  for  the  sense  of  liberty  and 
peace  that  space  around  a  house  can  give. 

This  over-crowding  of  the  villages  was  a  relic  of  the  days 
when  it  had  been  necessary  to  live  close  together  for  mutual 
protection. 

The  need  had  long  been  past,  but  the  natural  conserva- 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  DEPARTMENT        161 

tism  of  the  peasantry  clung  to  the  old  tradition  of  what  a 
\dllage  should  be  like. 

"The  grouping  of  the  farm-houses  into  villages,"  says  Arthur 
Walton,  a  member  of  the  Friends  Unit,  "led  to  a  variation  in 
the  value  of  hind  depending  on  its  distance  from  the  village. 
It  became  necessary  therefore  that  the  land  be  not  all  together 
but  that  a  man  might  have  a  chance  of  owning  some  land  near 
the  village  and  some  farther  off.  Add  to  this  the  tradition  of 
egalite  and  the  French  law  of  inheritance,  and  the  effect  on  the 
land  was  the  deplorable  morcellement.  .  .  . 

"These  two  factors,  the  overcrowded,  ill-planned,  unsanitary 
farm  villages,  and  the  morcellement,  are  to-day  the  out-standing 
difficulties  of  the  agTicultural  development  of  the  country. 

"The  French  peasant  has  not  kept  up  with  the  progress  of  other 
countries.  He  still  clings  to  the  old  methods  of  his  fathers.  His 
lands  are  unsuited  to  growing  large  crops.  He  does  not  under- 
stand the  machinery  he  is  using  and  he  knows  little  about  scien- 
tific farming.  His  houses  and  barns  are  old-fashioned  and 
cramped.  And  above  all  he  does  not  understand  the  spirit  of 
cooperation." 

The  recognition  of  these  factors  broadened  the  conception 
of  what  Friends  Reconstruction  workers  should  be  about. 
Not  only  first-aid  in  providing  shelter  for  the  homeless,  and 
re-starting  cultivation,  but  also,  in  good  time,  help  in  more 
progressive  and  modern  farm,  house,  and  village  planning, 
sanitation,  scientific  farming  and  the  use  of  machinery,  and 
the  principles  and  practice  of  co-operation. 

The  agricultural  relief  undertaken  by  Friends  provided 
immediate  scope  for  a  beginning  under  the  last  two  heads. 

Before  the  end  of  1917  there  were  one  hundred  and  six- 
teen men,  and  twenty-  women  American  workers  in  France, 
which  with  the  English  workers  already  there  made  up  a 
total  of  two  luuidred  and  thirteen  men  and  ninety-five 
women  in  the  Friends  Reconstmiction  Unit  of  the  American 


162  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Red  Cross,  or,  as  it  was  called  in  France,  la  Mission  Anglo- 
Americaine  de  la  Societe  des  Amis. 

These  were  scattered  abroad  among  the  various  relief 
centers,  the  majority  sprinkled  through  that  region  where 
''The  green  opaque  waters  of  the  Mame  flow  among  the 
poplars  between  the  rounded  chalk  hills ;  where  the  villages 
and  to\\ais  are  strung  like  beads  along  the  green  thread  of 
the  river,  which  reflects  their  old  bridges  and  picturesque 
towers;  where  on  the  hill-slopes  are  the  vinej^ards  and 
palaces  of  the  wine  kings,"  while  in  the  vaUey  below  haying 
and  plowing,  sowing  and  reaping,  take  place  in  their  sea- 
son. Though  now  weeds,  three  years  old,  grew  in  the  little 
fields,  and  over  the  hills  came  the  thunder  of  distant  guns. 

The  accession  of  workers  and  means  caused  new  villages 
to  be  opened  up  for  relief,  and  on  the  15th  of  October,  1917, 
the  first  sod  was  turned  in  the  villages  of  Gruny  and  Golan- 
court  and  the  agricultural  work  in  the  Somme  district  be- 
gan.    One  of  the  Relief  workers  wrote : 

"To  view  the  vast  spaces  of  untilled  land  that  has  fallen  out 
of  cultivation,  covered  with  rank  grass  and  weeds  of  all  descrip- 
tion in  boundless  profusion  is  enough  to  bring  despair  to  the  most 
optimistic  heart;  but  on  the  other  hand,  to  take  our  villages  one 
by  one,  to  see  a  large  field  here  or  a  smiall  patch  there  now 
springing  green  with  the  promise  of  harvest  where  otherwise 
thistles  would  be  reigning  supreme,  is  to  realize  that,  in  spite 
of  what  still  remains  undone,  our  work  has  not  been  entirely  in 
vain." 

Besides  other  difficulties  inherent  in  the  work  itself,  the 
difficulty  of  getting  horses  suitable  for  plowing  had  to  be 
met.  Continuous  plowing  from  day  to  day  involved  a 
heavy  strain  on  the  animals,  which  only  really  strong  horses 
were  capable  of  bearing  satisfactorily.     These  were  scarcely 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  DEPARTMENT         163 

to  be  had  except  at  a  prohibitive  price.  Again,  when  some- 
thing in  the  vshape  of  a  horse  was  obtained,  the  next  problem 
was  **to  feed  the  brute." 

But  one  largely  unforeseen  difficulty,  to  those  unfamiliar 
with  the  intimate  habits  and  customs  of  the  French,  was 
the  absence  of  the  co-operative  spirit  among  the  people 
themselves.  In  a  crisis,  people  are  more  apt  to  be  ruled  by 
their  usual  habits  of  thought  and  feeling  than  to  develop 
new  ones  purposely  for  the  occasion.  The  French  peasant 
had  carried  individualism  to  an  extreme  for  generations. 
Ever}^  cultivator  and  small  farmer,  however  small  his  ag- 
gregate holdings  might  be,  aimed  to  be  entirely  self-sufficing, 
with  all  requisite  machinery',  buildings  and  equipment,  in 
spite  of  the  obvious  waste  of  this  method.  And  the  women, 
old  men,  and  boys  who  returned  to  start  the  cultivation  of 
the  land  again  while  their  men  were  at  the  war,  had  no 
thoughts  of  co-operation  in  their  minds.  Each  family 
thought  of  struggling  with  its  own  plot,  with  whatever  tools 
it  might  individually  own  or  obtain,  neither  seeking  nor 
offering  help  among  fellows  in  misfortune. 

But  les  Amis  and  stem  necessity  taught  them  differently ; 
showed  them  differently.  Not  easily,  or  \\ithout  effort,  but 
with  much  patience  and  persuasion  they  got  the  peasants  to 
work  together,  lending  help  with  large  pieces  of  work,  co- 
operating in  the  use  of  machinery\  This  was  so  obviously 
essential  with  the  smiall  amount  of  machinery  and  labor 
to  go  round  that  it  was  more  possible  than  it  would  have 
been  under  ordinary  conditions  to  get  the  peasants  to  co- 
operate, and  the  French  Government,  realizing  that  the 
shortage  of  both  these  essentials  would  last  for  some  time 
after  the  war,  most  wisely  encouraged  the  formation  of 
permanent  co-operative  societies,  or  communal  committees 
among'  the  farmers.     One  of  these  was  in  existence  at  Gruny 


164  SERVJCE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

when  the  Americans  arrived,  and  at  once  asked  their  help 
in  the  development  of  five-hundred  acres  of  land  which  they 
had  agreed  to  farm  jointly  and  share  the  proceeds. 

It  is  an  indication  of  the  spirit  in  which  the  re-cultivation 
of  the  land  was  undertaken  that  some  of  the  owners  of  lands 
included  in  the  five-hundred  acres  to  be  jointly  farmed  were 
prisoners  in  Germany,  or  mobilized  men  with  no  one  in 
Gruny  to  represent  them.  It  was  arranged  to  have  them 
participate  in  the  returns  from  the  land,  after  making 
proper  allowance  for  those  cultivators  who  might  supply 
labor  in  addition  to  the  labor  which  the  Friends  Unit 
donated. 

There  still  remained,  of  course,  at  Gruny  and  elsewhere, 
farmers  who  were  obstinately  conservative,  and  preferred  to 
cling  to  their  own  little  plots  with  as  much  independence  of 
others  as  possible.  These  also  the  Friends  were  able  to  help, 
and  in  case  of  the  women,  to  do  their  work  for  them. 

Later  the  French  Government  prepared  legislation  to  the 
effect  that  any  farmers  forming  themselves  into  a  co-opera- 
tive society  could  borrow  money  from  the  Government  at 
one  per  cent.,  thereby  providing  the  first  essential  of  all, 
adequate  agricultural  credit.  Further,  they  undertook  to 
sell  machinery  to  communes,  as  opposed  to  individuals,  at 
special  rates. 

"All  this  will  be  rendered  easier,"  writes  a  member  of  the 
Friends  Mission,  "by  the  fact  that  many  of  the  old  landmarks, 
which  divided  off  one  little  strip  from  another,  and  made  it 
practically  impossible  to  do  anything  on  a  large  scale,  have  been 
destroyed,  so  that  it  may  be  possible  to  arrange  the  land  on  a 
more  reasonable  basis.  But  no  government  legislation,  however 
intelligent, — and  all  modem  agricultural  legislation  in  France 
has  been  intelligence  itself, — can  ever  be  a  really  practical  success, 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  DEPARTMENT        165 

unless  the  consei'vatism  and  prejudice  of  the  farmers  can  be 
removed.  The  farmers  of  these  parts  have  never  seen  a  motor- 
plow,  and  even  a  binder  is  of  comparatively  recent  adoption,  so 
it  may  be  surmised  that  they  will  not  always  take  kindly  to  new 
methods  and  new  machinery." 

Friends  inadvertently  offered  an  invaluable  service  to  the 
future  of  such  progressive  movements  in  rural  France  by 
their  accustomed  use  of  modern  machinery,  which  they  in- 
troduced and  used  for  and  along-side  of  the  people.  The 
motor-plow  at  Sermaize,  for  instance,  once  having  proved 
its  wonderful  advantages,  was  in  tremendous  demand  for 
miles  around.  The  peasants  were  unwilling  to  see,  but  once 
having  seen,  ''seeing  was  believing."  In  those  districts, 
and  later  in  the  other  sections,  the  peasants  were  converted, 
and  became  eager  for  modem  machinery  in  defiance  of  the 
shades  of  their  fathers. 

Meanwhile,  much  of  the  old  machinery,  though  broken, 
was  not  broken  past  repair  if  missing  parts  could  be  ob- 
tained. As  the  quickest  and  cheapest  way  of  helping  the 
peasants  to  set  to  work  again  the  Friends  established  repair 
shops  for  machinery'  in  different  centers.  In  their  efforts 
to  get  missing  parts  from  the  large  firms  in  Paris  they  were 
seized  with  a  bright  idea,  and  became  agents  for  several  of 
these  firms  in  the  district  of  the  Meuse.  This  enabled  them 
to  supply  necessary  parts  at  reasonable  prices  to  the 
farmers. 

Besides  this,  the  French  Army,  when  they  found  what 
work  Friends  were  doing  in  repairing  agricultural  imph^- 
ments,  put  at  their  disposal  two  large  groups  of  salvaged 
broken  machinery,  from  which  they  were  often  able  to  obtain 
necessarj^  parts  for  the  repair  of  almost  obsolete  machines. 
In  one  month,  360  machines  were  repaired  for  neighboring 


166  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

farmers,  and  so  the  visible  forms  of  hope  and  self-respect 
placed  in  their  hands. 

At  Gruny  the  workshop  for  repairing  of  machines  actu- 
all}^  succeeded,  in  the  absence  of  a  professional  wheelwright, 
in  restoring  to  active  service  two  invalid  hay-carts  and  four 
manure  carts. 

While  building,  repairing  and  plowing  were  going  on  at 
some  centers  others  were  concentrating  on  threshing.  The 
condition  of  the  land  varied  a  good  deal  according  to  its 
relation  with  the  former  war-front.  Portions  that  had  been 
immediately  behind  the  French  lines  were  more  or  less 
under  cultivation,  and  had  a  harvest  that  had  been  wearily 
and  unskilfully  reaped  and  stacked  b}^  the  boys,  women  and 
old  men  available.  Portions  that  had  been  immediately  be- 
hind the  German  lines  were  often  barren  and  covered  with 
weeds,  except  in  some  places  where  the  Germans  had  planted 
crops  for  their  own  use,  and  had  been  forced  to  leave  them 
behind  for  the  French. 

In  1914  the  good  harvest  had  been  ruined  by  the  invasion. 

In  1915,  after  the  initial  disadvantages  of  beginning  all 
over  again  in  an  already  war-damaged  country,  great  losses 
were  sustained  through  the  people  having  to  make  stacks 
for  the  first  time,  their  bams  having  been  burned. 

In  1916  the  season  was  very  wet;  weeds  had  increased 
enormously,  and  the  shortage  of  labor  was  extreme.  More 
still,  therefore,  was  lost.  Also,  it  rained  incessantly 
throughout  the  autumn,  making  plowing  unusually  difficult. 

In  1917  a  wet  spring,  following  an  unusually  severe  frost, 
which  killed  much  winter  wheat,  made  it  difficult  to  sow 
more  at  the  right  time,  even  had  seeds,  implements  and 
labor  been  plentiful.  It  rained  almost  every  day  through 
the  harvest  season,  making  it  harder  even  than  it  inevitably 
would  have  been  to  gather  what  scanty  crops  had  laboriously 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  DEPARTMENT         167 

been  wrought  upon  to  ^ow.  INIany  fields  were  almost 
swamps,  and  the  problem  of  getting  the  sodden  grain 
threshed  before  the  floods  should  entirely  ruin  it  seemed 
insurmountable. 

The  very  elements  seemed  against  the  war-weary,  heart- 
sick, harried  French  civilians,  struggling  with  weak  hands 
against  such  odds. 

Then  what  messengers  of  human  love  and  good  fellow- 
ship in  that  dreary  landscape  seemed  the  devoted,  strong 
young  men  with  the  eight-pointed  star.  Their  cheerj^  for- 
eign ways,  their  noisy,  broken  French,  braced  up  the  sad 
villages  like  windy  sunshine. 

They  brought  not  only  a  will  to  serve,  but  threshing- 
machines;  not  only  good-nature,  but  science  and  trained 
hands. 

Says  one  of  them,  writing  from  Sermaize: 

"During  the  winter  months  we  have  been  almost  entirely  oc- 
cupied in  threshing  the  crops,  often  very  poor  ones,  which  have 
been  got  in  during  the  autumn.  Ours  are  almost  the  only  thresh- 
ing-machines in  the  district — consequently  without  the  help  of 
*les  Amis'  the  nine  hundred  tons  of  grain  which  we  have  done 
must  almost  certainly  to  a  large  extent  have  been  wasted.  We 
know  only  too  well  the  badly  built  sunken  stacks,  with  their  green 
tops,  sometimes  two  or  three  years  old;  and  the  waste  seems 
almost  more  pitiable  when  the  harvest  has  been  gathered  with 
such  infinite  labor  by  old  men,  women  and  children.  Our  twelve 
machines,  seven  of  which  are  driven  by  petrol  motors  and  the 
other  five  by  horse-power,  have  worked  in  thirty-three  different 
villages,  ^lere  figures,  however,  give  very  little  idea  of  the  extent 
of  the  work  or  of  the  number  of  people  affected  by  it.  Conditions 
in  France,  and  particularly  in  the  war  zone,  are  so  different  from 
those  at  home.  Nearly  all  the  people  in  this  district  are  farmers 
and  of  them  seventy-five  per  cent,  farm  under  twenty-five  acres. 
Thus  the  number  of  people  with  whom  we  come  into  contact  is 


168  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

much  larger  than  would  be  expected,  living  as  many  of  us  have 
been  doing,  in  caravans  almost  the  whole  winter,  two  together  in 
a  French  village  several  miles  away  from  our  center  at  Sermaize, 
and  depending  entirely  for  our  meals  on  the  people  for  whom 
we  happen  to  be  working.  It  is  a  unique  opportunity  of  getting 
to  know  the  French  peasants.  Often  there  is  no  one  in  the 
villages  who  has  ever  before  seen  an  Englishman,  while  an  Ameri- 
can is  indeed  something  to  be  pointed  out  and  discussed.  The 
work  from  daylight  to  dusk  on  a  threshing-machine  for  five  or 
six  months  is  by  no  means  light  or  pleasant.  The  bams,  when 
there  are  any  left,  have  a  door  at  one  end  onlv ;  and  they  are  not 
merely  dark,  but  dusty  when  a  thresher,  squeezed  in  between  two 
walls  of  straw,  fills  up  the  only  opening,  and  blows  out  a  year's 
accumulation  of  dust  and  thistles  from  a  particularly  weedy 
crop  of  wheat  or  oats. 

"Yet  there  is  probably  not  one  who  has  lived  this  life  in  the 
villages  who  is  not  glad  to  have  had  the  opportunity  of  doing  so, 
and  grateful  for  the  friendships  so  formed.  To  have  helped  in 
some  way  to  lessen  the  poverty  and  hardship  caused  by  this 
fearful  devastation  and  to  increase  the  good  feeling  and  amity 
between  the  nations  is  the  work  for  which  we  are  here. 

"It  is  due  to  a  large  extent  to  the  knowledge  of  conditions  so 
gained  that  during  the  spring  and  summer  we  are  in  a  position  to 
help  those  who  need  it  most;  first  in  plowing  and  sowing  and 
later  during  the  harvest.  With  a  motor  tractor  and  team  of 
horses  we  have  been  steadily  at  work  for  several  weeks,  in  one 
or  two  villages,  taking  payment  in  almost  all  cases  to  cover  at 
any  rate  a  portion  of  the  cost  of  the  work. 

"Some  ten  tons  of  seeds  of  all  descriptions  have  been  sold  at 
cost  price,  as  well  as  a  large  quantity  of  artificial  manures, 
binder  twine,  etc." 

The  value  of  the  work  may  be  estimated  by  the  fact  that 
the  military  authorities  reported  at  the  close  of  1917  that 
the  district  around  Sermaize  had  been  unique  in  the  war- 
zone  as  having  been  properly  threshed. 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  DEPARTMENT        169 

In  1918,  with  increased  personnel,  and  better  permits  for 
moving  from  village  to  village,  the  Friends  Unit  threshed 
900  tons  of  grain  as  against  588  tons  in  1917,  and  included 
for  the  first  time  seven  fresh  villages — Evres,  Pretz,  Som- 
maisne,  Auzecourt,  Rembercourt,  Erize  and  Louppy  le 
Petit. 

These  traveling  Quaker  threshers  lived  with  the  peasants 
as  they  threshed  the  grain  of  each  village  community. 
They  often  slept  in  the  same  room  with  the  peasant  and  his 
entire  family.  They  were  thus  unable  to  have  their  win- 
dows open  to  the  fresh  air,  for  as  Mark  Twain  once  humor- 
ously remarked,  the  reason  the  air  is  so  pure  in  France  is 
that  the  peasants  always  sleep  with  their  windows  shut! 
This  close  and  intimate  life  with  the  people  gave  the  workers 
a  great  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  villagers  and  opened  to 
them  a  rare  chance  to  serve  in  a  multitude  of  ways,  not 
possible  for  those  who  administered  relief  in  bulk  and  from 
office-centers.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  threshing  was  such 
hard  menial  work  attended  with  so  few  comforts  of  life,  the 
threshers  always  speak  of  this  branch  of  service  with  real 
enthusiasm  and  regard  it  as  a  favored  privilege. 

Two  of  our  American  boys  arrived  at  such  a  town  in  the 
Mame  with  a  threshing  machine.  One  was  engineer  and 
the  other  fed  the  grain  into  the  machine.  There  was  a 
widow  whose  wheat  they  were  to  thresh  first,  and  the  only 
help  she  had  was  her  old  father  and  a  one-legged  son.  She 
was  a  whole  host  in  herself,  but  it  was  not  enough  workmen 
for  even  our  energetic  youth.  Through  the  mayor  they 
secured  the  assistance  of  two  German  prisoners.  A  sol- 
dier home  for  rest  volunteered  his  aid,  as  did,  also,  two 
girls. 

The  boys  felt — what  is  always  true  in  these  retired  places 
— that  they,  none  of  them,  had  much  faith  in  outsiders,  and 


170  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

they  knew  there  was  much  speculation  among  them  as  to 
what  good  "the  foreigners"  could  do. 

"When  it  was  time  to  start  the  engine  and  show  them  what 
a  foreigner  could  really  do,  the  magneto  failed  to  spark. 
This  was  at  last  remedied,  and  it  started  off  with  a  glorious 
clatter,  only  to  stop  and  start  by  jerks.  This  all  gave  ample 
opportunity  for  the  disheartened,  downtrodden  populace  to 
stand  around  making  disparaging  remarks.  Our  Quaker 
boys  discovered  water  in  the  gasoline,  but  finally  did  get 
started.  Then  they  threshed  wheat — even  with  the  kind  of 
equipment  necessary  to  use  in  this  section — as  the  people 
here  had  never  seen  it  done. 

Meanwhile,  the  good  temper,  the  persistent  effort,  the  un- 
paid work  of  the  boys  did  not  pass  unnoticed.  And  the 
village  prospered  through  the  material  help  in  their  crops ; 
they  learned  to  work  together  for  mutual  aid ;  they  opened 
their  hearts  to  a  thought  of  something  worth  while  for  them 
outside  their  village,  even  outside  their  own  country ;  they 
renewed  their  faith  in  each  other ;  and  through  these  whom 
they  learned  to  call  "The  Friends,"  they  ceased  to  pray  to 
a  God  of  Vengeance  and  saw  Him  as  He  truly  is.  Father 
of  Loving  Helpfulness. 

The  peasants  did  not  always  take  to  the  new  ways  of 
doing  things  as  this  account  of  plowing  will  show : 

* '  When  we  got  out  in  the  field  to  plow,  some  hundred  and 
fifty  people  followed,  and  they  sat  up  when  the  tank  climbed 
a  bank  of  thirty  degrees.  The  field  was  marked  out  but  the 
first  furrow  went  very  hard,  so  we  stopped  to  take  off  the 
third  plow,  and  even  then  found  the  clay  soil  too  stiff  to 
plow  well  up  hill.  ^Ca  ne  vaut  pas  quatre  sous'  was  one 
encouraging  remark.  The  tank  replied  with  a  back  fire, 
soixanie-quinze.  After  a  great  battle  we  finished  that  field 
and  in  drier  weather  and  on  lighter  land  we  soon  began  to 


"'  :i'v^" 


w-i 


Tractor  Plowing 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  DEPART:\IEXT         171 

prove  its  worth  and  overcome  the  prejudice  caus.xl  hy  the 
bad  start.  Now  we  have  a  big  list  of  plowing  ahead,  includ- 
ing two  fields  of  twelve  acres  each,  and  we  have  already 
plowed  over  thirty  acres,  the  greater  part  of  which  is  so^vn 
and  harrowed. 

"It  is  being  driven  now  on  the  rolling  hills  overlooking 
the  beautiful  river  valley,  Grange-le-Compte,  Clermont  and 
the  wonderful  Argonne  forest — the  only  blot  on  the  horizon 
the  bare  hills  of  the  front.  At  the  present  time  there  is  only 
one  man  free  to  run  it  and  the  jolting  and  heat  of  it  is 
enough  to  peel  the  skin  off  his  face  and  give  him  a  temble 
thirst." 

The  problem  of  re-stocking  the  farms  with  live-stock,  and 
so  increasing  the  food  supply,  was  one  that  was  harder  to 
solve.  It  was  in  fact  impossible  to  obtain  many  of  the 
larger  animals.  But  the  food-value  of  the  humble  rabbit  is 
not  to  be  despised,  neither  is  the  creature  expensive  or  diffi- 
cult to  keep,  though  his  charming  furriness  may  make  him 
harder  for  the  tender-hearted  owner  to  kill.  Thousands  of 
rabbits,  therefore,  were  distributed  by  the  Friends  Unit  in 
the  districts  of  the  Meuse  and  the  Mame,  and  later,  by  the 
help  of  incubators,  thousands  of  less-appealing  chickens, 
besides  some  few  goats,  and  several  hundred  sheep.  Pro- 
fessional butchers  were  scarce,  but  hunger  is  a  great  hard- 
ener of  hearts. 

Two  or  three  bee-specialists  among  the  members  of  the 
Unit  also  worked  hard  to  build  up  a  stock  of  bees  for  dis- 
tribution, to  add  to  the  resources  of  the  more  or  less  sugar- 
lass  French. 

On  the  signing  of  the  annistice,  the  Friends'  work  spread 
out  through  the  country  west  of  Verdun  and  plowing,  har- 
rowing, and  sowing  were  done  for  many  villages  in  that 
region.     In  some  cases  this  work  was  done  before  the  return 


172  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

of  the  inhabitants,  and  at  Brabant,  the  Cure,  at  the  first 
service  in  his  Church  since  1914,  gave  thanks  to  God  and  the 
*'Societe  des  Amis"  for  the  plowed  fields  that  greeted  the 
inhabitants  on  their  return. 

There  were  at  this  time  720  acres  plowed  by  Friends, 
which  would  not  have  been  done  at  all  had  they  not  done  it. 

The  work  of  the  department  was  arranged  by  its  monthly 
meeting  of  delegates.  Most  of  the  work,  as  it  developed, 
came  as  a  direct  result  of  the  initiative  of  the  workers  them- 
selves, as  represented  by  their  delegates  at  the  monthly  meet- 
ings. This  system  gave  the  members  of  each  equipe  free- 
dom and  a  sense  of  responsibility,  whi-ch  brought  out  their 
full  efficiency,  enthusiasm,  and  esprit  de  corps. 

It  is  a  wonderful  thing  in  war-time,  even  from  the  mili- 
tary point  of  view,  to  have  some  people  on  hand  who  have 
the  time  and  the  strength  and  the  will  to  do  the  ordinary 
things  upon  which  life  depends.  However  valiantly  the 
soldiers  may  drive  the  invader  from  the  country,  and  so 
claim  to  defend  the  lives  of  the  civilian  population,  (i.  e. 
nowadays,  the  old  men,  women  and  children)  they  may  re- 
turn to  find  them  dying  of  starvation  in  the  spoiled  and 
devastated  crop-lands,  or  mentally  deranged  by  the  long  de- 
spairing struggle  for  mere  life  against  overwhelming  odds. 

But  perhaps  if  we  grew  so  humane  and  intelligent  as  to 
tell  off  a  sufficient  number  of  people  with  the  requisite  phys- 
ical, mental  and  spiritual  qualities,  to  undertake  adequately 
the  reconstruction  of  a  country  on  the  very  heels  of  war,  and 
to  take  proper  care  of  the  civilian  population  on  account 
of  which  so  many  men  were  dying  and  killing,  we  should 
be  too  humane  and  intelligent  to  indulge  in  the  grotesque 
and  self-contradictory  practice  of  war  any  more. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

EVACUATIONS  IN   SPRING   1918   BEFORE  THE  GERMAN  ADVANCE 

An  unexpected  and  discouraging  set-back  to  the  work  of 
the  new  recruits  to  reconstruction  work  was  experienced  in 
the  spring  of  1918.  They  were  just  beginning  to  see  some 
results  of  their  labors  in  building,  relief,  agriculture,  and 
medical  work,  when  the  tide  of  war  turned,  and  the  Ger- 
mans started  the  big  push  which  was  their  dying,  convulsive 
effort.  Where  they  passed,  the  reconstruction  work — the 
mended  tools,  the  little  wooden  maisons  demontahles,  the 
patched  up  houses,  all  the  little  glad  signs  of  returning 
civilization,  were  wiped  out,  and  the  former  desolation  re- 
stored in  more  than  its  former  despair. 

When  the  German  offensive  began  on  March  21st,  seventy 
houses  which  it  had  taken  the  construction  camp  at  Dole 
months  to  make,  were  destroyed.  Sixty  men  who  were  at 
work  in  five  centers,  some  of  them  barely  five  miles  from 
the  lines,  were  ordered  to  evacuate.  Owing  to  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  evacuation  had  to  be  carried  out,  the 
need  of  first  helping  all  the  peasants  possible  in  their  va- 
rious difficulties,  nearly  all  the  tools  were  left  behind,  and 
large  parts  of  the  personal  and  domestic  equipment  of  the 
Friends  Unit  were  lost.  The  crowded  condition  of  the 
roads,  jammed  with  fleeing  refugees  and  long  trains  of 
army  camions,  made  necessary'  the  abandonment  of  one  of 
the  tractors,  two  *' caravans"  and  some  agricultural 
machinery. 

173 


174  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

The  equipe  at  Foreste,  closest  to  the  German  lines  was 
forced  to  evacuate  on  the  first  day  of  the  offensive,  and  in 
rapid  succession  those  at  Ham,  Golancourt,  Esmery-Hallon 
and  Gruny  found  themselves  under  the  same  necessity. 
Some  of  the  men  were  under  fire,  but  there  were  no  casual- 
ties at  this  time.  The  chief  danger  to  health  afterwards  was 
excessive  fatigue,  owing  to  the  prolonged  and  unceasing 
demands  made  upon  the  mental,  spiritual,  and  physical 
resources  of  the  Friends,  advising  the  bewildered  peasants, 
carrying  the  bundles  of  the  weak,  seeking  lost  children,  aid- 
ing with  recalcitrant  cows,  sharing  their  scanty  stores  of 
food  with  the  hungry,  cheering  people  on  the  road,  and  then 
working  to  make  arrangements  for  their  comfort  when  they 
had  reached  a  place  of  safety.  It  was  a  particularly  strenu- 
ous interval,  full  of  ordinary  kindnesses,  unheroic  common- 
place acts  of  commonsense  and  charity,  not  noticeable,  noth- 
ing to  boast  about  afterwards,  but  a  very  literal  interpreta- 
tion of  the  recommendation  in  the  New  Testament  about  be- 
ing ''least  of  all  and  servant  of  all."  The  French  peasants 
had  learnt  to  regard  les  Amis  as  friends — people  to  be  ap- 
pealed to,  people  who  would  do  things  for  them. 

As  for  the  feeling  of  les  Amis,  one  of  them,  writing  a 
week  after  the  evacuations,  when  depression  at  the  wasted 
work,  the  destroyed  effort,  might  have  been  expected  to  be 
the  prevailing  mood,  says : 

"I  could  not  think  of  the  loss  of  our  material  work  .  .  .  but 
only  of  the  tremendous  gain  in  friendship  and  good-will  among 
a  people  to  whom  we  cannot  even  yet  speak  plainly.  There  is 
one  thought  ingTained  in  every  one  of  us,  and  that  is  that  as 
soon  as  we  can,  we  must  go  ba^ck  and  help  them  set  their  homes 
in  order  and  begin  life  anew.  If  the  people  in  America  who  are 
back  of  us  will  i^ive  us  half  a  chance,  we  can,  I  think,  accomplish 
thrice  the  good  that  we  have  in  the  past." 


EVACUATIONS  IN  SPRING  1918  175 

The  stories  of  this  little  tragic  interval  are  full  of  pictures 
of  a  war-ridden  country,  and  of  the  kind  of  spontaneous, 
sensible  action  which  the  Friends'  organization  made  it  pos- 
sible for  individuals  to  render  in  the  moment  of  need. 

Han'old  F.  Trew  writes: 

"From  the  edge  of  the  forest  one  looks  out  across  the  plain  to 
the  mined  city  of  Rheims,  and  the  gray  towers  of  its  cathedral. 
Southward  from  the  town  runs  the  highway  to  Epernay, — across 
the  plain,  up  the  liillside,  through  the  forest  and  down  again  as  it 
winds  through  the  vineyards  of  the  Marne.  To-day  a  strange 
caravan  is  passing  along  it.  Farm-carts  piled  high  with  sacks, 
bedding  and  funiiture;  a  wrinkled  old  woman  sitting  on  one, 
a  farmer  and  his  children  surrounding  it;  here  a  herd  of  cat- 
tle or  a  shepherd  with  his  gray  drove  of  sheep  raising  a  cloud 
of  dust  as  it  passes;  men,  women  and  children  pushing  trucks 
and  perambulators  filled  with  babies  and  packages, — an  entre- 
preneur des  transports  obliged  to-day  to  undertake  his  own  re- 
moval. Everything  with  wheels  capable  of  being  moved  is  moved 
southward,  through  the  forest  and  the  vineyards  to  the  town, 
beyond  it  to  the  towers  of  Montmort  and  the  poplar-filled  valleys 
beyond.  The  highway  becomes  more  crowded  as  they  pass,  and 
every  road  from  the  west  or  northwest  brings  a  tributary  stream 
running  southward,  always  southward,  while  to  the  north  where 
the  guns  sound,  passes  another  cavalcade,  of  many  nations  and 
tribes,  white  with  the  dust  of  the  roads. 

"It  is  evening,  and  the  caravan  has  turned  aside  from  the  high- 
way into  the  green  fields  among  the  poplars.  Tarpaulins  are 
spread  across  two  carts  placed  near  together,  or  over  a  rough 
framework  of  branches;  horses  and  cattle  graze  near  by;  the  old 
village  shepherd  guards  his  gray  sheep  among  the  red  poppies, 
and  the  blue  smoke  of  camp  fires  rises  up  through  the  trees 
while  the  evening  meal  is  prepared,  and  the  bright  red  duvets 
laid  out  on  the  green  grass  between  the  carts, 

"Northwestwards  runs  the  road  to  X.  .  .  .  At  the  crossways, — 
where  emerging  from  the  forest,  one  looks  down   to  the  river. 


176  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

along  whose  banks,  and  among  the  trees  beside  it,  are  the  unseen 
opposing  forces, — a  shell  has  fallen,  tearing  up  the  stones,  and 
making  passage  difficult.  Below  and  to  the  right  is  a  little 
village,  and  the  car,  running  down  the  hillside,  is  soon  between 
the  houses;  but  for  a  few  soldiers  placing  telephone  wires,  or  a 
passing  cavalier,  the  place  is  deserted.  Two  or  three  inhabitants 
had  indeed  been  seen  that  morning,  but  a  search  in  the  dark 
cellars,  and  in  the  rooms  where  tables  are  still  spread  with  the 
remains  of  an  unfinished  meal,  and  on  whose  hearths  the  fires 
are  burnt  out,  reveals  no  one.  Outside  not  a  soul  is  to  be  found. 
Stay,  here  is  an  old  woman  in  her  garden.  Would  she  go  in  the 
car  over  the  hill  to  safety?  No,  she  could  not  leave;  her  garden 
must  be  attended  to,  there  were  her  rabbits  and  cows  to  feed, — 
she  must  stay  to  look  after  her  children's  interests;  and  anyhow, 
she  was  'assez  vieille  pour  faire  une  morte.'  Perhaps,  among  all 
the  sad  things  of  war  these  old  people  are  the  saddest  of  all.  If 
they  are  taken  from  possible  death  they  are  torn  too  from  all 
that  life  holds  dear  for  them, — the  farm  where  they  had  lived  in 
childhood,  and  where  their  sons  and  grandsons  had  been  born, 
the  fields  they  had  tilled,  the  church  they  had  prayed  in. — 'J'aime 
mieux  mourir  id  que  sur  les  chemins/  And  so  she  had  to  be  left. 
One  man  only  can  be  found  to  return  in  the  car.  At  the  cross- 
ways  several  more  shells  have  fallen,  one  falls  upon  it  when  the 
car  has  passed,  and  another  in  the  edge  of  the  wood  fifty  yards 
ahead,  throwing  brown  earth  over  the  road. 

"Here  are  two  women  walking  back  towards  their  village  to 
fetch  clothing.  Pointing  towards  a  group  of  houses  a  mile  or  so 
away,  they  ask  that  the  car  may  take  them  there:  besides  the 
packages  there  are  old  and  sick  people  who  wish  to  leave.  So 
the  car  makes  towards  the  houses.  ...  In  the  village  there  seems 
no  sign  of  life,  no  sound  but  the  scream  of  shells  overhead,  the 
echo  of  the  guns  across  the  woods.  The  women  in  the  car  point 
to  a  cellar  door.  There,  they  say,  is  a  woman  with  her  baby, 
but  three  days  old,  who  wants  to  leave  the  village.  Down  in  the 
darkness,  in  the  damp  and  cold,  but  in  safety  from  the  shells, 
lie  the  mother  and  her  new-bom  babe.    The  mattress  is  taken  out 


EVAOUATIONS-  IN  SPRING  1918  177 

and  laid  in  the  car,  the  mother  and  child  carried  out  of  the  cellar 
and  placed  upon  it.  Little  groups  have  now  gathered  in  the 
village  street  around  the  car.  There  is  not  room  for  all  who  wish 
to  go.  Several  old  people  with  bundles  of  clothing  hurriedly 
gathered  together  find  places  in  the  car,  leave  is  taken  and  tears 
shed,  the  car  speeds  up  the  hill  and  through  the  wood  again. 

"Two  old  people,  one  of  them  a  cripple,  to  be  brought  from  the 

cellars  of  the  distillery  at  Y ."     So  runs  the  message  handed 

to  us.  As  night  falls  the  car  passes  through  the  forest  towards 
the  valley  of  the  Marne.  The  report  of  the  guns  shakes  the  earth 
and  echoes  across  the  woods.  ...  At  the  edge  of  the  forest,  the 
road  is  pitted  with  shell-holes,  torn  branches  of  trees  lie  across 
it,  the  dark  brown  earth  is  scattered  everywhere.  Across  the 
valley  in  the  dusk  one  can  see  the  opposing  line  of  hills;  below, 
between  the  trees,  the  gleam  of  the  river,  here  and  there  the  silver 
light  of  a  flare.  The  car  runs  quietly  down  to  the  town.  A  spell 
seems  to  have  fallen  upon  the  place,  no  sound  or  movement  is 
there,  it  is  a  city  of  the  dead.  Knocking  on  the  doors  brings  no 
response;  we  enter  the  rooms;  they  are  deserted.  Further  along 
broken  stones  and  tiles  lie  about  the  streets,  shattered  fragments 
of  glass  reflect  the  light  of  the  stars.  The  road  leading  to  the 
bridge  head  is  hidden  by  camouflage.  Beyond  it  is  a  sentry  who 
makes  his  challenge  and  leads  us  to  the  officers'  quarters.  Our 
mission  told,  we  are  taken  to  the  distillery  cellai'^.  Here,  in  the 
great  vaults  hewn  from  the  chalk  in  the  depths  of  the  earth,  lit 
now  by  the  dim  light  of  candles  and  lamps,  mattresses  are  laid 
out,  and  upon  them,  not  two  persons  only  but  twenty-five.  Some 
are  already  awake,  others  are  awakened — eager  to  leave  the  fated 
town.  The  limit  of  baggage  which  can  be  carried  is  a  deterrent, 
and  the  selection  of  the  right  articles  to  be  taken  is  a  lengthy 
process.  Lame  and  sick  people  are  carried  up  the  interminable 
steps  to  the  open  air,  the  first  load  made  up,  and  the  hillside 
climbed  once  more. 

"Past  the  cross-roads  one  breathes  again,  but  three  journeys  in- 
stead of  one  must  be  made;  the  distance  from  the  base  is  long, 
and  the  night  is  short.  .  .  . 


178  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

"As  the  car  climbs  the  hillside  with  its  last  load,  the  moon  rises 
red  between  the  dark  trees,  dawn  follows,  and  the  mist  among 
the  poplars  vanishes  away.  .  .  . 

"Rough  peasants  are  these  farmers,  whose  fair  children  seem  to 
owe  but  little  to  their  parents,  but  to  be  rather  children  of  nature, 
a  part  of  the  field  from  which  they  have  been  torn.  Here  is  one 
little  girl  w4th  complexion  sallow  as  the  fields  from  which  the 
hay  is  carried,  the  curves  of  her  face  recalling  the  rounded  chalk 
uplands,  her  fair  hair  stirred  by  the  breeze  as  the  wind  stirs  the 
corn,  her  eyes  gray  and  deep  as  the  waters  of  the  Mame  into  which 
they  have  so  often  gazed.  .  .  ." 

Ernest  Brown's  account  is  vivid  and  worthy  of  a  place 
in  the  story  of  disaster  and  of  bravery: 

"I  will  have  to  condense  the  account  of  recent  happenings  both 
because  of  the  censorship  and  for  lack  of  time  to  write  more 
fully. 

"To  begin  with,  on  the  morning  that  the  great  offensive  started 
the  guns  commenced  to  roar  at  about  4 :30  a.  m.  so  that  we  could 
hardly  sleep  and  soon  we  could  hear  the  shells  whistling  by  and 
bursting  near  the  station.  We  concluded  it  would  be  a  good 
hunch  to  get  up  and  see  what  was  doing.  We  did  so,  some  of 
the  fellows  wen*t  to  their  work  and  we  chauffeurs  worked  on  our 
cars.  About  10  a.  m.  word  came  in  that  the  Germans  were  ad- 
vancing and  that  villages  up  the  line  had  orders  to  evacuate  by 
train.  We  went  out  to  assist  if  we  could  and  'Fritz'  was  slinging 
shells  in  every  little  while. 

"After  the  civilians  were  all  on  the  train  which  was  waiting 
for  them,  we  went  on  out  to  evacuate  our  own  boys  who  were 
still  further  toward  the  front.  It  was  just  about  as  hot  territory 
as  I  ever  want  to  be  in,  with  shells  exploding  along  the  sides 
of  the  roads  and  the  allied  artillery  rii^ht  over  the  other  side 
of  a  big  hill  from  where  we  were,  making  a  terrible  noise.  The 
wounded  were  coming  in  by  the  hundreds  in  ambulances  and 
trains.  The  following  morning  we  were  awakened  at  5 :30  by  the 
Town  Crier  going  around  with  a  bell  and  telling  all  civilians  to 


EVACUATIONS  IN  SPRING  1918  179 

leave  the  town  by  either  the  7 :30  a.  m.  or  10  a.  m.  train.  I  dressed 
at  once  and  got  right  busy  with  the  motor  truck  hauling  people 
and  baggage  to  the  station.  All  of  our  crowd  left  on  the  10 
o'clofk  tiain  except  Sid  Brown,  our  other  chauffeur,  Bell,  Preston, 
Greist,  Hinshaw,  Miss  Glancy  and  myself.  We  started  out  with 
the  two  cars  going  different  ways  toward  Paris.  I  drove  to  a 
town  about  twelve  miles  away  where  there  was  an  American  Red 
Cross  Officer  who  asked  us  to  stay  and  help  in  a  number  of  vil- 
lages which  he  knew  were  going  to  be  evacuated.  Preston,  Greist 
and  myself  stayed  and  helped  to  evacuate  and  settle  the  refugees 
in  a  large  college  building  while  the  Germans  were  still  coming 
on. 

"That  night  about  11 :45  we  were  through  with  helping  the 
people  and  then  started  back  to  the  town  where  our  headquarters 
had  been,  to  bring  out  our  food  stores.  I  will  never  forget  that 
ride  as  long  as  I  live.  It  was  moonlight  with  a  thick  fog  covering 
the  ground.  We  drove  twelve  miles  and  at  about  1 :15  A.  m.  we 
crossed  the  bridge  into  the  town  and  then  stopped  to  listen.  There 
was  not  a  sound  except  the  occasional  bark  of  a  machine  gun. 
It  seemed  strange  that  there  was  no  more  noise  but  we  went  on 
into  the  town,  loaded  up  our  supplies  and  got  ready  to  pull  out 
about  3  A.  M.  We  met  some  British  outpost  sentries  who  said  they 
didn't  know  where  the  Germans  were,  but  that  they  were  expect- 
ing them  into  the  town,  before  long.  We  thought  we  might  as  well 
leave  as  by  now  the  machine  guns  seemed  to  be  shooting  pretty 
lively.  Just  before  we  pulled  out  we  met  four  'Tommies'  wheeling 
a  boy  on  a  stretcher  who  had  machine-gun  bullets  in  his  thigh  and 
arm  and  was  bleeding  badly.  They  stopped  us  and  asked  us  to 
take  him  on  to  a  hospital.  As  the  large  hospital  near  by  had  been 
cleared  out,  the  nearest  one  was  about  nine  miles  away,  so  we  put 
him  on  top  of  the  load  with  two  of  the  fellows  that  were  with 
him.  The  fog  was  getting  thicker  but  we  could  see  about  fifty 
feet  ahead.  We  could,  of  course,  have  no  lights  and  started  on 
slowly.  The  first  thing  I  knew  I  had  run  my  left  wheel  into  a 
large  shell  hole  big  enough  to  bury  a  three  ton  truck  in,  but  for- 
tunately by  a  quick  jerk,  I  ran  my  right  wheel  up  on  a  bank 


180  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

and  got  safely  around  the  place.  It  was  then  fairly  easy  driving 
for  awhile.  W^e  passed  about  five  miles  of  retreating  horse  artil- 
lery. Ahead  of  the  artillery  came  more  equii)ment,  tractors  and 
what  not  and  it  took  some  two  and  a  half  to  three  hours  to  go  a 
distance  of  perhaps  twenty  kilometers.  We  arrived  at  our  repair 
group  about  4  to  6  a.  m.  I  do  not  know  the  exact  time  as  all  our 
watches  had  stopped.  We  found  our  fellows  all  ready  to  pull  out 
with  their  stuff  loaded  into  the  carts  o>f  our  agricultural  depart- 
ment. I  immediately  unloaded  the  food  stores  and  used  the  car 
to  take  out  all  the  people  who  wished  to  be  evacuated,  but  some 
of  them  preferred  to  stay  and  take  their  chances.  As  the  village 
was  small  and  the  people  few,  I  soon  finished  and  went  back  to 
the  Red  Cross  warehouse,  packing  up  my  food  stores  again  en 
route. 

"The  following  day  was  spent  in  hauling  mattresses  for  the 
refugees  who  had  come  from  the  villages  near  by.  About  noon 
of  the  next  day  they  sent  me  out  to  help  evacuate  a  village  ten 
miles  away  to  the  east  telling  me  that  I  would  be  back  that  night 
very  late,  or  at  least  the  next  day  before  noon.  As  a  result,  I 
left  everything  that  I  owned  at  the  warehouse,  even  leaving  my 
uniform  coat  and  wearing  a  leather  one,  as  I  knew  there  would 
be  a  lot  of  work  to  do  and  I  wanted  to  keep  it  clean.  They  kept 
me  four  days  on  that  job,  however,  and  by  that  time  the  Germans 
had  occupied  the  town  I  had  left.  I  lost,  therefore,  almost  all 
my  clothing,  my  mandolin,  my  gold  watch,  $40.00  in  American 
Express  Company  checks  and  some  rather  valuable  tools  belong- 
ing to  the  Motor  Department.  The  boys  that  were  there  saved 
my  'cello,  fur  coat  and  suit  case,  but  the  last  mentioned  contained 
little  of  value. 

"At  the  next  village  to  which  we  were  moved  we  stayed  two 
days  with  the  guns  getting  heavier  all  the  time  until  we  had  got 
all  the  people  out  and  most  of  the  food  stores.  I  had  been  sleep- 
ing in  a  cellar,  in  my  motor  truck,  in  the  back  of  a  Ford  car  and 
in  various  other  places  and  did  not  take  off  my  clothes,  except 
my  shoes,  for  nearly  a  week.  On  the  third  morning  at  this  village 
they  routed  us  out  at  about  3  a.  m.,  saying  that  the  Boche  had 


EVACUATIONS  IN  SPRING  1918  181 

launched  a  gas  attack  and  that  we  had  better  leave.  This  we 
did  wiih  our  gas  masks  all  ready  for  an  emergency,  but  nothing 
stai'tling  happened. 

"Again  we  were  transferred  to  another  evacuation  center  and 
by  this  time  Hainer  Hinshaw  and  I  with  the  'Garner*  car  were 
the  only  ones  of  the  'Mission  des  Amis'  left  in  that  particular 
district.  From  there  I  was  sent  to  a  large  town  directly  on  the 
road  to  Paris  about  eight  or  nine  miles  from  where  the  Germans 
were  and  at  this  place  I  had  an  opportunity  to  tune  up  my  car, 
scrape  out  the  carbon,  etc.  This  town  or  rather  city  had  been 
completely  evacuated  and  the  Red  Cross  had  a  whole  hotel  turned 
over  to  them  and  there  I  slept  in  a  real  bed.  It  was  some  ex- 
perience to  feel  a  bed  under  you  after  sleeping  in  all  kinds  of 
places.  'Fritz'  soon  commenced  to  shell  this  place,  particularly 
the  railroad  and  we  went  to  bed  in  the  cellar  the  second  niiiht. 
After  being  there  about  three  days  some  of  our  crowd  blew  in 
with  the  'White'  car  and  then  we  all  pulled  out  for  Beauvais 
where  I  am  located  at  this  writing  with  the  American  Red  Cross 
directed  by  a  Mr.  Jackson  who  is  an  exceedingly  nice  and  efficient 
man.  Our  work  now  consists  in  meeting  trains,  caring  for 
refugees  that  come  in  from  the  villages  up  the  line  and  sending 
them  on  down  to  the  south  of  France  as  soon  as  we  can  get 
enough  to  make  up  a  train  load.  We  have  sent  out  two  trains 
since  I  have  been  here,  one  of  600  and  one  of  800  people,  but 
the  stream  is  lessening  now  and  unless  the  Germans  come  on 
farther  we  will  be  out  of  a  job  here  soon. 

"It  is  a  heartrending  sight  to  see  these  people  driven  out  with 
just  what  stuff  they  can  carry  with  them.  I  have  taken  them  out 
of  their  homes  with  the  ear-splitting  gmis  all  around,  packed  their 
stuff  and  moved  them  away.  I  have  walked  through  an  entire 
city  the  size  of  West  Chester,  Penn.,  or  larger,  all  intact  but  with 
not  a  single  civilian  in  it.  It  is  sad,  sad  business  and  I  for  one 
will  rejoice  when  it  is  all  over.  Not  for  my  own  sake,  but  for 
the  thousands  of  miserable  people  we  have  helped  to  move  out  of 
war's  pathway  during  the  past  two  weeks. 

"I  thank  goodness  that  I  am  somewhat  of  an  optimist." 


182  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Carleton  MacDowell  writes  from  Gruny: 

"We'd  not  finished  dinner  on  March  22nd  (after  two  days 
of  constantly  approaching  bombardment)  when  Walls,  from  Gol- 
ancourt,  appeared  at  the  door.  All  the  Golancourt  and  Esmery- 
Hallon  men  were  on  foot  or  wheel  or  in  carts.  .  .  .  I've  been 
washing  dishes  for  some  of  the  men  who  may  come  in  at  any 
time.  Marshall  and  Wray  have  been  peeling  potatoes  to  fry 
for  them.  .  .  . 

"The  rest  of  the  evening  seems  now  as  one  confused  whirl; 
constant  chasing  back  and  forth  between  the  dining-room  and 
kitchen — people  eating  at  the  tables — always  eating — new  faces 
always.  Then  the  tramping  about  in  the  grenier,  where  our 
refugee  comrades  were  finding  their  beds.  .  .  .  Each  group  of 
fellows  brought  more  stories,  and  each  new  set  of  stories  brought 
the  Germans  nearer,  and  made  the  outlook  more  gloomy.  It  was 
eleven  when  Kit  and  I  finally  started  up  to  Vigne  Verte  to  pack. 
The  great  soup-kettle  filled  with  oatmeal  all  cooked  was  in  the 
oven. 

"2  A.  M.  Kit  and  I  turned  in  for  some  rest — hard  work  while 
a  retreat  was  in  progress,  while  the  camions  were  snorting  and 
jockeying  for  positions  outside,  the  air  restless  with  planes — 
French  and  Boche  too,  with  occasional  bombs  and  machine-guns. 
At  four  Joe  came  in.  We  were  to  get  out  as  soon  as  possible. 
Things  looked  black.  .  .  . 

"Ernest  Brown  appeared  about  dawn  with  a  load  of  stores 
saved  from  Ham.  They  had  begun  to  eat  breakfast  when  I 
arrived  at  the  house;  some  were  standing  as  they  gulped  down 

their  oatmeal.     M had  opened  up  the  treasures  of  his  stock 

— dates,  figs,  nuts,  apples,  cheese.  We  ate  and  stuffed  pockets 
and  knapsacks.  The  food  supplies  from  Ham  were  unloaded 
in  the  yard,  so  that  the  camion  could  be  used  to  help  evacuate 
some  of  the  neighbors.  K.  went  all  round  the  village  telling 
everybody  of  the  chance  to  be  evacuated  at  once.  .  .  . 

"Down  along  the  road  through  the  fields  we  swung  towards 
Roye  en  route  for  Montdidier.     Wheat  was  just  breaking  through 


A  Group  of  Refugees 


EVACUATIONS  IN  SPRING  1918  183 

— some  of  it  in  stocky  plants  of  rich  green;  the  smooth  brown 
soil  was  all  planted;  newly-plowed  patches  in  deep  furrows 
were  made  almost  purple-brown  by  the  steam  that  the  sun  was 
wooing  out  of  the  frost.  The  sparkle  of  the  day  was  elating. 
One  could  not  help  feeling  the  wine  of  spring. 

"We   were    passed   by   E.,   with   a    camion    filled    with    Gniny 

people;  Madame  D ,  Madame  F , —  I  didn't  recognize  all 

of  the  people,  they  looked  so  unnatural  dressed  in  coats  and 
hats.  We  waved — but  a  heartsick  farewell  it  was.  They  were 
gone  in  a  moment.  .  .  .  And  all  the  time  the  skylarks  were  do- 
mg  as  only  they  know  how;  their  exaltation  and  jubilation 
would  win  your  heart  and  hold  your  attention  for  a  moment, 
then  the  pangs  of  the  hour  would  sweep  back  with  more  over- 
coming realization.  .  .  . 

"Here  was  a  group  of  two  women  and  several  girls  hopelessly 
gazing  at  the  broken  tongue  of  their  two-wheel  cart.  The  situa- 
tion looked  very  difilcult  at  first,  but  by  strings  and  a  strap  the 
broken  tongue  was  secured  in  place,  and  a  redistribution  of  the 
weight  of  the  luggage  finished  the  job.  We  pulled  it  along  a 
little  way  to  test  its  running,  and  then  marched  on  ahead  search- 
ing for  other  service.  .  .  .  Almost  evei*y  one  was  too  busy  to  be 
very  unhappy,  too  occupied  with  wheeling  or  pushing  or  trudg- 
ing or  just  holding  on,  to  mourn.  Wheel-barrows  were  heaped 
head-high;  carts  held  more  above  the  usual  high  sides  than  be- 
tween them,  and  sometimes  a  smaller  cart  trailed  on  behind. 
Mother,  in  a  weirdly  adorned  hat,  was  enthroned  on  one  such 
trailer;  anotlier  cart  was  so  full  that  the  only  place  for  Madame 
was  a  short  projection  beyond  the  tailboard,  and  there  she  clung. 
There  were  people  who  had  left  comfortable  homes  and  had 
several  carts.  We  saw  many  a  keg  of  wine;  we  saw  cases  of 
cliampagne.  There  were  Mesdames  all  alone  with  nothing  to 
cari-y  but  the  leading  rope  of  a  cow — or  a  baby-carriage.  One 
woman  was  sitting  on  the  bank,  her  face  buried  in  her  hands,  a 
handkerchief  thrown  over  her  head — just  she  and  the  baby.  .  .  . 

"There  people  were  retracing  their  ste]is;  once  before  tliey  had 
turned  their  backs  on  their  homes.  .  .  .  Was  it  wortli   while  to 


184  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

have  made  the  new  start?  Would  it  have  been  better  to  have 
remained  refugees  than  to  suffer  the  intensity  of  the  war  again  ! 
Easter  came  to  Gruny  with  war  and  destruction.  As  Easter 
dawns  it  clearly  dawns  upon  us  that  our  hopes — their  hopes — 
have  been  crushed;  that  our  work  has  even  now  been  undone, 
and  how  quickly.  Yet  the  best  of  it  remains,  the  best  which 
was  the  inner  purpose  of  it  all." 

Parvin  M.  Russell  writes  from  a  relief  group: 

"Somewhere  southeast  of  Chateau-Thierry  and  southwest  of 
Epernay,  a  location  which  was  pretty  well  chosen  as  a  relief 
center,  since  quite  a  stream  of  refugee  families  poured  through 
on  their  way  out  of  the  immediate  path  of  the  Germans.  There 
was  a  temporary  canteen  serving  soup  and  coffee  all  day  long, 
with  bread  and  beans,  sometimes  separate,  sometimes  in  the  soup, 
but  it  was  a  welcome  spot  for  the  weary  folk  who  trudged  by 
with  wagons  and  wheelbarrows  piled  high  with  their  house- 
hold affairs.  Our  three  or  four  autos  did  good  service  bringing 
old  or  crippled  people  out  of  the  towns  close  up  behind  the 
new  lines.  .  .  .  One  of  the  boys  from  the  Source  and  I  had 
an  old  Renault  car  with  a  van  body,  which  sensed  nicely  for 
both  ordinary  and  ambulance  work.  .  .  .  We  did  find  one  case 
that  hardly  bears  the  telling,  but  it  was  our  job  to  remove  a 
sick  woman  from  a  small  town  where  practically  no  civilians  re- 
mained; all  had  sought  safety,  leaving  this  woman  absolutely 
alone  in  bed,  unable  to  get  out  of  bed  to  prepare  her  own  meals. 
The  soldiers  in  the  other  houses  had  their  hands  full  with  their 
own  affairs  and  so  she  was  practically  marooned.  The  military 
had  telegraphed  us  to  come  and  get  her,  it  is  true,  but  when  we 
arrived,  the  four  poilu  stretcher-bearers  who  volunteered  to  help 
put  her  in  the  auto,  one  by  one  sought  the  fresh  air  of  the  front 
yard,  apparently  somewhat  concerned  about  the  lunch  they  had  re- 
cently had  (and  didn't  care  to  lose).  Finally  one  of  them  nerved 
himself  to  the  task  and  with  a  handkerchief  for  a  gasmask,  I  went 
in  to  see  if  I  could  help  him;  but  such  a  condition  of  filth  and 


EVACUATIONS  IN  SPRING  1918  185 

helplessness  I  have  never  seen.  We  couldn't  put  her  on  a  stretcher 
because  of  the  pain  of  moving  her  infected  and  terribly  swollen 
leg;  the  old  hrancardiers  would  not  touch  her;  so  it  ended  by  put- 
ting- her  whole  bed  into  the  auto  and  taking  her  fortj'-five  miles  to 
the  hospital.  .  .  .  The  next  day,  having  to  go  to  the  same  hospital 
with  another  load,  I  inquired  about  the  poor  woman,  and  was  told 
that  she  was  really  doing  nicely.  .  .  . 

"It  was  pleasing,  too,  throughout  the  whole  little  period  of 
service  in  that  region,  to  have  the  various  military  authorities 
express  their  appreciation  of  the  work  ^Les  Amis^  were  doing. 
As  one  captain  of  about  forty-five  years  said  to  me,  'It  makes  it 
easier  for  these  poor  folks  to  bear  with  leaving  home,  since  your 
people  look  after  them  and  show  kindness,'  and  I  believe  it  did 
help  them  to  forget  something  of  the  bitterness  of  their  lot. 
One  old  lady  was  able  to  get  something  of  a  thrill  out  of  the  fact 
that  it  was  her  first  ride  in  an  automobile.  And  certainly  the 
hot  soup  and  coffee  at  the  canteen  were  always  a  surprise  and 
delight  to  them.  .  .  .  Another  definite  service  our  canteen  did 
was  to  distribute  information  to  refugee  farmers  in  regard  to 
taking  up  their  abode  on  abandoned  farms,  of  which  there  were 
a  large  number  available ;  also  directing  their  attention  to  various 
bureaus  which  could  place  them  at  work  on  under-cultivated  farms. 
All  this  tended  at  once  to  point  out  some  definite  objective,  and 
brought  a  ray  of  hope  back  to  many  a  man  who  might  have 
gone  on  in  a  sort  of  discouraged  fashion  and  lost  a  good  chance 
to  start  for  himself  again.  .  .  . 

"In  the  house  just  beside  our  canteen  lived  a  tiny  little  sunny- 
haired  girl  named  Audree,  who  used  to  play  around,  much  in- 
terested in  all  that  was  going  on.  She  was  a  little  ball  of  sun- 
shine, and  was  actually  kept  clean  by  a  very  careful  mother,  so 
that  we  all  nearly  spoiled  her.  But  tlie  last  day,  as  two  of  us 
were  finally  closing  up  the  place  and  packing  the  last  pan  into 
the  auto,  little  Audree  was  out  to  see  it  all,  and  when  we  said 
good-bye  I  took  a  kiss  'in  my  fingers'  so  to  speak,  and  placed  it 
on  her  tiny  forehead.     It  surprised  her  for  a  minute  (it  was  evi- 


186  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

dently  a  new  way  to  be  kissed)  but  she  looked  up  and  quick  as 
a  bird  kissed  her  own  little  fingers  and  reached  up  to  put  the 
kiss  on  my  furrowed  brow." 

And  Richard  Clements  casts  light  from  another  angle 
from  Montdidier : 

"Two  of  us  who  had  ridden  (on  bicycles)  ahead  of  the  rest  of 
our  party  went  at  once  to  the  sous-prefecture  to  ask  if  the 
members  of  our  Mission  could  in  any  way  assist  the  civil  authori- 
ties in  the  work  of  feeding  and  lodging  the  emigres  who  were 
arriving.  We  were  informed  that  the  authorities  had  received 
no  news  of  the  evacuation  of  several  places  we  mentioned,  and 
that  no  arrangement  had  been  made  to  feed  or  lodge  the  people 
coming  into  the  town.  In  company  with  a  secretaiy  from  the 
sous-prefet^s  office,  we  next  called  upon  Monsieur  le  Maire,  who 
was  equally  surprised  to  learn  that  five  or  six  hundred  emigres 
were  en  route  for  Montdidier.  We  held  a  hurried  consultation  to- 
gether, and  agreed  upon  a  few  simple  things  that  had  to  be  done 
at  once. 

"B.  G.  was  sent  off  post-haste  on  a  bicycle  to  tell  the  people  on 
the  road  to  come  at  once  upon  arrival  to  the  town  square.  The 
Maire  telephoned  the  military  authorities  for  a  supply  of  bread, 
to  be  distributed  immediately  to  the  emigres. 

"In  the  meantime  a  group  of  American  ladies,  members  of  the 
Red  Cross,  had  arrived  on  the  scene.  They  secured  the  use 
of  a  small  room  in  a  house  near  the  Place,  and  in  the  course  of 
the  day  were  able  to  provide  crowds  of  hungry  people  with 
bread  and  hot  coffee. 

"Late  in  the  same  evening,  the  use  of  the  Ecole  Maternelle  in 
a  street  adjacent  to  the  Place  was  secured  as  a  lodging  house  for 
those,  and  they  were  many,  who  had  failed  to  obtain  accommo- 
dation elsewhere.  The  lodgers  brought  their  own  bedding,  placed 
it  on  the  floor  in  one  of  the  schoolrooms,  and  settled  down  to 
sleep  until  morning. 

"Next  day  the  feeding  center  was  transferred  to  this  building, 
and  a  large  quantity  of  food  was  prepared  in  a  hastily  improvised 


EVACUATIONS  IN  SPRING  1918  187 

kitchen  during  Sunday,  Monday  and  Tuesday.  Soup,  coffee, 
chocolate,  bread,  meat  and  fruit  were  distributed  to  the  people 
as  they  arrived,  and  also  to  those  who  passed  through  Montdidier 
railway  station  by  train.  In  the  course  of  three  days,  the  small 
group  of  English  and  American  workers  at  Montdidier  wore  able 
to  provide  some  little  refreshment  for  two  or  three  thousand 
people." 

The  elasticity  of  the  Friends'  organization,  and  their 
capacity  for  spontaneous  service  are  v^^ell-exemplified  by  the 
mention  in  this  letter  of 

''Our  Friend,  Eric  Boston,  who  during  our  stay  at  Montdidier 
had  done  splendid  work  on  behalf  of  the  most  sorely-tried  people, 
accompanied  the  emigres  on  one  of  the  trains  that  were  ministered 
to,  in  order  to  render  the  emigres  what  service  he  could  en  route 
and  to  help  to  make  some  provision  for  them  at  the  end  of  their 
journey,"  at  a  destination  inconnue. 

Montdidier  itself,  however,  was  only  a  temporary  refuge. 

"On  Tuesday  three  of  our  workers  were  able  to  evacuate  the 
sick  and  infirm  people  from  the  Hospice  of  Montdidier.  These 
unfortunate  sufferers  were  carried  from  their  beds,  placed  on 
board  the  'White'  camionette,  and  then  taken  to  the  railway 
station,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  away.  A  long,  closed  goods 
wagon  had  been  brushed  out  and  converted  into  a  temporary- 
traveling  hospital  ward,  with  beds  placed  upon  the  floor  for  the 
most  serious  cases.  Six  or  seven  women,  all  of  them  seriously 
ill,  and  two  of  them  in  a  dying  condition,  were  placed  on  these 
beds  in  charge  of  two  nuns  from  the  Hospice.  .  .  . 

"About  eight  o'clock  on  Tuesday  evening  we  had  been  advised 
to  leave  Montdidier  as  soon  as  possible,  as  it  was  thought  to  be 
dangerous  to  remain  any  longer.  The  townspeople  were  leaving 
in  streams.  .  .  . 

"Two  of  us  set  out  for  Amiens  at  two  o'clock  on  Wednesday 
morning.     Montdidier    seemed    like    a    town    of    the    dead.     The 


188  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

houses  were  deserted,  the  shops  closed,  and  the  streets  had  become 
strangely  silent,  only  here  and  there  one  saw  an  odd  civilian,  or 
a  hurrying  group  of  soldiers.  The  town  lay  waiting  for  its 
enemies.     Montdidier  had  been  evacuated." 

Says  another  writer: 

"Experience  has  proven  that  the  people  will  go  back  to  the 
Somme  at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  and  that  they  will  rejoice 
at  our  return.  We  shall  be  needed  more  than  before.  It  will 
mean  much  to  the  people,  and  more  to  us  who  have  worked  with 
them  in  their  broken  homes  before  the  drive.  And  it  will  mean 
much  to  the  whole  Society  which  we  represent.  The  people 
want  us  and  need  us.  Our  duty  is  plain.  'Back  to  the  Somme' 
as  soon  as  the  way  opens  is  our  slogan." 

When  this  disaster  was  envisaged  by  the  Mission,  it  be- 
came evident  that  one  of  the  first  things  to  be  done  was  to 
house  as  many  refugee  families  as  possible  and  to  take  them 
where  no  more  ''drives"  by  great  armies  would  smash 
through  their  homes.  Our  house-building  shops  turned  to 
the  task  of  making  houses  for  refugees  in  near-by  towns. 
Parks  were  furnished  in  some  of  the  cities  within  easy  reach 
of  the  house  factories  in  which  we  were  given  permission  to 
build  temporary  cites  for  these  desolate  and  homeless 
sufferers. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  these  refugee  cites  was  the 
one  in  the  great  park  of  Besaneon  where  a  long  winding 
park-road  was  lined  on  both  sides  with  the  pretty  brown 
houses  topped  with  tile  roof.  A  touching  experience  hap- 
pened to  me  as  I  went  down  this  road  examining  the  houses 
of  the  cite  about  New  Years  of  1919.  The  little  children 
gazing  out  of  the  windows  saw  me  going  by,  dressed  in  the 
uniform  of  the  Friends'  Mission.     They  recognized  that  it 


EVACUATIONS  IN  SPRING  1918  189 

was  some  one  connected  with  the  kind  men  who  built  their 
homes. 

In  a  happy  throng  they  rushed  out,  circled  and  danced 
around  me  and  shouted  with  unrestrained  joy.  I  felt  like 
a  father  returning  to  his  enthusiastic  children  after  a  long 
absence.  It  revealed  the  real  inner  significance  of  the  labor 
of  love. 

Other  similar  cites  were  built  at  Dole  along  the  river 
front,  at  Troyes  and  at  Monceau-les-Mines.  The  way  our 
men  met  the  disaster  of  ''the  great  drive"  is  finely  shown  in 
the  closing  word's  of  Carleton  MacDowell  's  letter : 

"When  the  end  came  and  the  material  works  were  lost,  the 
best  of  all  remained — that  best  which  was  the  inner  purpose  of 
it  all.  NeighborUness,  friendship,  kindliness,  sympathy — these 
are  made  of  stuff  which  no  chemistry  of  war  can  crush,  any  more 
than  death  can  end  the  influence  of  a  man's  personality. 

"The  never-dying  spirit  of  a  man  carried  on  and  on,  in  ever 
broadening  circles  in  the  lives  of  others — this  is  immortality. 
We  face  half  a  yearns  work  torn  to  pieces.  Yet  I  believe  the 
influence  of  our  work  will  live  on  in  the  lives  of  our  neighbors, 
in  our  own  lives.  The  final  sacrifice  will  deepen  its  effect.  For 
does  not  Christianity  itself  have  at  its  heart  this  triumph  of 
spiritual  over  material!" 


CHAPTER  XIV 

RELIEF   WORK   AND   OTHER   FORMS  OF  SERVICE 

*  *  Relief  ' '  was  obviously  one  of  the  most  pressing  needs, 
as  the  havoc  and  devastation  presented  themselves  on  every 
hand  to  our  workers.  The  need  for  relief  in  general  was  of 
course  manifest  everywhere,  but  there  were  certain  specific 
types  of  relief  which  made  an  especial  appeal  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Mission.  There  were  many  old  women  who  were 
left  with  no  one  to  care  for  them  and  who  were  often  too 
feeble  or  ill  or  broken  to  care  for  themselves.  These  were 
gathered  as  far  as  possible  in  central  '^homes''  where  they 
received  the  care  and  attention  which  they  needed.  There 
were,  too,  hosts  of  orphan  children  in  all  sections  of  our 
areas.  Their  ca^es  always  made  a  peculiar  appeal  and  they 
received  a  due  share  of  the  time  and  energy  of  the  relief 
workers.  They  were  gathered  also  at  various  centers  and 
given  good  care  and  the  best  available  substitute  for  home. 

Then  there  was  the  immediate  care  of  throngs  of  refugees, 
both  those  who  were  swept  out  of  the  shelled  sectors  and 
those  who  came  back  through  Switzerland  from  behind  the 
German  lines.  The  former  were  assembled,  as  we  have  seen, 
in  constructed  cites  where  they  had  good  homes  of  their  own 
while  the  others  were  quartered  as  comfortably  as  possible 
in  the  departments  of  France  which  were  unthreatened  and 
where  they  were  supplied  with  a  small  financial  allowance 
for  their  needs  of  life.  Besides  these  there  were  broken 
parts  of  families  who  drifted  to  the  regions  which  had  been 

190 


RELIEF  WORK  191 

partially  devastated  and  afterwards  left  free  by  the  with- 
drawal of  the  invading'  anmes.  This  latter  case  was  true  of 
the  Marne  district  which  had  seen  the  retreat  of  the  invad- 
ing army  after  the  First  Battle  of  the  Marne.  Neither  Bar- 
le-Duc  on  the  east  of  this  Marne  district  nor  Chalons-sur- 
Marne  on  the  west  were  ever  taken  by  the  invading  armies. 
They  were  both  shelled  and  bombed  and  suffered  much 
destruction,  but  nevertheless  life  went  on  in  them.  Here 
were  huddled,  therefore,  many  refugees  from  near-by  re- 
gions and  both  these  beautiful  cities  became  important  cen- 
ters of  relief  under  our  Mission.  Great  quantities  of  sewed 
and  knitted  garments  which  were  made  in  our  local  centers 
in  all  parts  of  America  where  there  were  Friends  eventually 
reached  the  storehouses  of  Bar-le-Duc  and  Chalons  and 
other  similar  towns  and  here  they  were  distributed  by  the 
trained  relief  workers.  They  visited  the  groups  of  refugees, 
or,  as  the  case  might  be,  the  little  scattered  families  which 
were  endeavoring  to  maintain  a  kind  of  life  amid  the  debris 
of  the  peasant  villages  and  supplied  them  with  clothes  which 
they  could  put  on  in  place  of  their  tatters.  Perhaps  noth- 
ing was  ever  done  which  gave  more  real  comfort  to  these 
long-suffering  people  than  to  put  them  into  warm  clothes. 
Life  was  unendurably  bleak  and  their  poor  shelters  were 
very  cold  in  winter,  so  that  warm,  whole  clothes  came  as  a 
great  blessing.  With  the  clothes  came,  too,  what  they 
needed  hardly  less — love,  affection  and  friendly  sympathy. 
The  distribution  of  pure  milk  for  the  children  was  another 
form  of  relief  which  occupied  a  number  of  workers.  It  was 
one  of  the  most  valuable  of  all  the  services  of  relief.  Some 
of  the  milk  supplied  came  from  our  own  Mission  cows,  a 
large  herd  being  kept  for  this  purpose  on  the  farm  at  Ven- 
ault-les-Dames.  Hives  of  bees  were  also  furnished  to  the 
peasants  in  some  sections  favorable  for  bees,  so  that  families 


192  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

might  use  honey  as  a  good  substitute  for  sugar.  One  of  the 
interesting  centers  for  the  "culture"  of  bees  was  at  Evres. 
Rabbits,  hares  and  chickens  were  also  raised  in  great  num- 
bers in  many  of  the  centers  of  agriculture  and  distributed  by 
the  relief  workers.  Garden  utensils,  farm  implements  and- 
seeds  for  sowing  and  planting  formed  still  another  type  of 
relief.  There  were  also  centers  for  the  repair  of  farming 
tools  and  implements,  which,  in  a  world  where  almost 
everything  customary  had  broken  down,  proved  to  be  an 
almost  indispensable  form  of  help.  As  soon  as  the  refugees 
were  able  to  get  back  to  their  new  homes,  the  relief  workers 
helped  them  to  get  furniture  for  their  houses,  cooking  dishes 
and  utensils  and  other  indispensable  things  for  home  life. 
In  some  centers  besides  doing  ordinary  sewing,  the  women 
were  taught  to  make  mattresses,  pillows  and  that  curious 
contrivance  which  the  French  call  duvet — a  thick  feather- 
quilt  too  short  to  cover  the  entire  bed  but  very  warm  for 
the  limited  area  that  is  covered! 

One  of  the  great  services  of  the  mission  of  relief  was  that 
of  teaching  the  women  and  girls,  both  in  the  villages  and  in 
the  refugee  groups,  to  make  embroidery  as  a  means  of  finan- 
cial self -assistance.  This  soon  became  an  extensive  business 
in  all  the  relief  centers.  There  were  two  main  types  of 
work  in  which  they  were  instructed,  (1)  the  white  embroid- 
ery and  (2)  the  colored  work.  Some  preferred  to  work  at 
one  type  and  some  at  the  other.  The  workers  in  the  Mission 
supplied  the  embroidery  cloth  at  a  small  price  and  also  the 
thread  and  the  wool,  and  they  taught  the  art  to  the  women. 
The  women  quickly  became  experts  and  turned  out  large 
quantities  for  sale.  The  sales  were  handled  by  the  workers 
in  charge  and  though  the  prices  asked  were  not  low,  the 
work  sold  as  rapidly  as  it  could  be  made.  The  women  took 
the  raw  material  to  their  homes  and  therefore  could  look 


RELIEF  WORK  193 

after  their  little  children,  if  they  had  any  and  make  a  good 
living  from  the  sales  of  their  handiwork.  It  also  kept  their 
minds  from  their  sorrows  and  enabled  them  in  some  sense 
to  stand  the  hard  world  in  which  they  found  themselves. 
Besides  this  somewhat  fine  and  delicate  work,  the  relief 
centers  also  furnished  other  types  of  material  for  more  com- 
mon forms  of  needlework.  There  were,  too,  other  ways  pro- 
vided by  which  the  women  could  earn  money  for  their  sup- 
port or  at  least  could  assist  toward  it.  These  centers  were 
extremely  busy  places,  especially  in  the  morning  when  the 
women  came  for  their  material  and  their  designs.  Here 
once  more  the  point  of  contact  was  close  between  the  helpers 
and  those  helped  and  interesting  links  of  friendship  were 
foimed.  Sophia  ]\I.  Fry  was  head  of  Relief  through  the 
entire  period  of  our  service.  She  was  most  unsparing  of 
herself  and  always  busy  with  the  plans  for  lessening  the 
hard  tragedy  of  the  people.  She  was  abounding  in  energy 
which  seemed  exhaustless,  and  she  had  power  of  endurance 
to  go  steadily  on  from  one  stage  of  relief  to  another  without 
losing  either  vitality  or  human  interest  in  those  who  con- 
stituted the  problem.  This  labor  of  course  involved  fre- 
quent trips  of  investigation  to  study  the  needs  of  new  re- 
gions, complicated  problems  of  oversight  and  many  trips 
from  the  remote  centers  to  Paris  for  committee  meetings, 
for  consultation  and  for  purchasing  of  material.  This  re- 
lief service  offered  a  field  for  a  large  number  of  women 
workers,  though  some  features  and  branches  of  it  fell  to  the 
men,  and  each  center  had  workers  of  both  sexes. 

Besides  the  two  centers  alread}^  mentioned  there  were 
corresponding  types  of  work  carried  on  at  Troyes,  a  city 
of  fifty  thousand  inhabitants  with  a  host  of  refugees,  at 
Sermaize,  at  Vitry,  at  Charmont,  at  Bar-sur-Aube,  at  Rom- 
illy  and  at  Lisieux.     In  the  Chatillon  district  there  were 


194  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

centers  at  Mareuil-le-port,  Nanteuil,  Vemeuil,  at  Pargny- 
les-Roims,  with  a  small  center  also  in  the  city  of  Rheims. 
At  a  later  period  in  the  Meuse  there  were  relief  centers  at 
Grange-le-Compte,  Sainte  JMenehould,  Varennes,  Les 
Islettes,  Neuilly,  Clermont,  Fromereville  near  Verdun,  Bra- 
bant, Dombasle,  Givry-en-Argonne,  and  in  the  Ardennes  at 
Grand  Pre,  Mouzon,  Dun-sur-Meuse,  Attigny  and  Chatel- 
Chehery.  Finally  there  was  an  important  center  at  Ham, 
after  the  return  of  refugees. 

The  sense  that  all  that  they  could  do  was  after  all  but  a 
drop  in  the  bucket  of  abnormal  human  suffering — the  allevi- 
ation of  the  distress  of  tens  among  thousands  of  needy — 
could  not  fail  to  weigh  at  times  upon  the  Relief  workers, 
especially  perhaps  when  they  were  fresh  on  the  field,  and  for 
the  first  time  really  confronted  by  the  magnitude  of  their 
task.  But  one  of  the  paragraphs  of  the  encouraging  mes- 
sage of  the  old-stager  English  workers  to  the  new-coming 
Americans  touches  and  illuminates  this  very  point : 

"In  the  districts  devastated  by  the  war  you  may  be  disheart- 
ened by  the  immense  mass  of  suffering  and  the  smallness  of  the 
help  it  is  possible  to  give.  There  is  nothing  we  have  felt  more 
acutely  ourselves  during  our  three  years  out  here.  But  along 
with  this  feeling  of  helplessness  we  have  learnt  something  of 
the  opposite.  At  a  time  when  people  are  thinking  in  continents, 
in  millions  of  lives  and  hundreds  of  millions  of  money,  we  have 
lived  in  small  villages  among  humble  people,  doing  unsensational 
though  interesting  work;  we  have  come  to  see  that  personal  sym- 
pathy and  genuine  understanding  are  all  the  more  welcome  at  a 
time  when  individual  personality  is  generally  unconsidered." 

Friends,  with  their  fundamental  belief  in  the  value  of 
the  individual,  did  not  despise  trifles.  It  was  as  worth  their 
while  to  cheer  up  the  children  as  to  build  houses  or  work  the 
fields  for  their  seniors.      They  were  as  ready  to  make  a  long 


RELIEF  WORK  195 

and  dangerous  motor-trip  to  get  one  old  woman  out  of  a 
cellar  as  to  fetch  two-score.  And  having  got  them  out  they 
did  not  turn  them  adrift  to  fend  for  themselves  hut  care- 
fully deposited  them  in  some  safe  place  where  their  care 
was  assured. 

R.  B.  writes: 

"Yesterday  I  drove  over  150  miles  in  a  driving  rain.  I  brought 
three  refugees  down  from  just  back  of  the  lines.  They  were 
old  women  who  had  been  living  in  a  cellar  ever  since  the  Ger- 
mans were  driven  out  of  their  village,  and  as  they  were  con- 
tinually under  shell-fire,  they  had  hardly  been  out  of  this  cellar 
for  six  months.  All  three  were  over  sixty  years  old,  and  were 
nearly  dead  from  underfeeding  and  exposure.  The  Unit  has 
opened  up  a  home  for  just  such  cases  as  these  at  Charmont.  .  .  . 

*The  life  in  these  little  Ftench  villages  that  were  destroyed  by 
the  war  is  awful.  You  can't  imagine  how  any  one  could  live  for 
months  in  a  cellar  without  a  change  of  clothes  or  a  bath.  They 
come  out  of  their  holes  just  reeking  with  filth." 

Perhaps  the  description  of  this  modest  work  at  Charmont 
might  come  appropriately  here,  with  an  appreciation  of  the 
amount  of  devotion  which  is  necessarily  entailed  on  the 
American  girl,  Frances  Ferris,  who  undertook  the  charge  of 
it.  Here  is  her  own  description,  with  all  reference  to  ser- 
vice or  sacrifice  conspicuous  by  its  absence : 

"Charmont  does  not  belie  its  name.  It  is  a  picturesque  vil- 
lage crowning  the  hills  that  border  the  Mame  valley,  about 
ten  kilometers  north  of  Serniaize.  Some  twenty  years  ago  this 
was  one  of  the  richest  vineyards  of  Champagne,  and  the  com- 
fortable farm  houses  still  betoken  the  prosperity  of  the  village. 
But  a  blight  struck  the  vines  and  the  fields  were  turned  to 
farms,  and  the  farming  is  now  carried  on  on  a  small  scale, 
merely  for  the  individual  family  maintenance  rather  than  for 
profit.     The  surrounding  forest  lands  offer  the  largest  industry 


196  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

of  the  district  at  present,  and  daily  processions  of  ancient  dames 
pass  the  door,  bearing  enormous  burdens  of  fagots  on  their  backs 
in  cornucopia  baskets.  The  slopes  are  covered  with  orchards  that 
next  month  must  clothe  the  landscape  with  a  drift  of  bloom. 

"The  little  equipe  here,  consisting  at  this  moment  of  .one 
American  and  ten  old  women  refugees,  had  its  genesis  after 
the  Fall  bombardments  at  Bar.  It  seemed  necessary  to  find 
some  place  near  enough  to  Bar,  to  which  these  infirm  old 
people,  not  ill,  but  not  able  to  sleep  in  the  caves,  could  be 
brought  by  automobile.  Charmont,  not  being  on  any  railroad, 
is  totally  unimportant  from  a  military  point  of  view,  and  so 
is  fairly  safe.  Six  weeks  of  rain,  rats  and  wretchedness  were 
spent  in  an  abandoned  old  .chateau  near  by,  before  the  present 
cosy  farm-house  was  secured  and  the  menage  moved  in.  The 
location  is  on  the  edge  of  the  village,  overlooking  a  wide  expanse 
of  country  to  the  west.  It  is  the  site  of  the  ancient  chateau  of 
Renaumont,  twice  destroyed,  once  by  a  thunderball,  the  second 
time  in  the  Revolution  by  a  mob  who  came,  so  the  story  goes, 
to  murder  two  priests  as  they  were  holding  midnight  services  in 
the  chapel.  A  moat  still  surrounds  the  place,  where  ducks  paddle 
peacefully  and  groups  of  garrulous  women  bat  and  rinse  their 
blanchissage.  The  present  buildings  were  the  farm-  and  out-houses 
of  the  old  chateau.  The  great  greniers  and  sheds  stand  empty 
and  swept,  ready  to  receive  a  possible  influx  of  refugees,  if  the 
Spring  brings  a  new  bombardment  at  Bar.  At  present,  the 
distant  booming  of  the  cannon  in  the  Argonne,  or  an  occasional 
high-flying  Boehe  plane  are  the  only  disturbers  of  the  peace. 

But  Charmont's  raison  d'etre  is  not  merely  to  furnish  a  shelter 
for  a  handful  of  stranded  old  refugee  women.  The  doctor  holds 
a  weekly  clinic  here  and  considerable  amateur  medical  work  is 
done  in  the  village.  A  shop  has  been  opened  where  stuffs,  bed- 
ding and  furniture  are  sold  at  reduced  prices  to  refugees.  Re- 
cently an  ouvroir  has  been  opened  at  Nettancourt,  near  by,  where 
cut-out  clothing  is  distributed  for  sewing,  the  same  to  be  sold 
afterward  in  the  shop  later  in  the  Spring;  when  the  roads  get 
more  passable — or  navigable  rather — the  Verdun  visiting  will  be 


RELIEF  WORK  197 

done  by  bicycle  in  the  district  to  the  north.  As  the  work  in  tlic 
'New  Meuse^  develops,  Charmont  may  even  become  a  pied-a-terre 
(relief  center)  of  some  importance  for  that  region.  Thus  Char- 
mont makes  no  pretentions,  but  tries  to  fill  a  modest  place  of 
real  service  in  the  work  of  the  Mission." 

Something  v^hich  may  seem  in  itself  slight  among  so  much 
important  work,  and  yet  which  displays  the  spirit  of  the 
Friends  Mission  supremely,  was  the  celebration  of  Christ- 
mas which  was  undertaken  by  all  the  equipes,  as  near  as  pos- 
sible to  the  25th  of  December.  For  three  years  no  Christ- 
mas celebration  had  been  held  in  any  of  the  war-zone 
villages,  and  the  younger  children  liad  hardly  any  memory 
of  it  as  a  festive  season.  In  fact,  any  sort  of  parties  or 
rejoicing  was  foreign  to  their  gray  little  war-ridden  lives. 
In  the  Christmas  parties  held  by  the  Friends,  the  wonderful, 
never-to-be-recaptured  rapture  of  childhood  was  given  to 
these  little  ones  who  had  so  far  been  denied  their  rightful 
heritage.  And  the  grown-up  folks  shared  in  their  joy. 
Joy,  in  the  midst  of  sorrow,  misery  and  desolation — it  was 
no  small  contribution  to  France  to  bring  it  into  being  even 
in  a  few  scattered  villages.  For  Christmas,  1917,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  Charles  Evans,  the  Philadelphia  Committee  sent 
over  a  ton  of  candy  put  up  in  little  individual  boxes.  The 
celebration  at  Gruny  is  typical  of  man}^  others.  There 
is  no  better  way  of  reproducing  its  spirit  than  by  quoting 
from  the  first-hand  accounts  of  workers  who  shared  in  its 
labor  and  its  fun: 

"Our  men  in  France  are  not  only  using  their  hands  in  building 
houses,  repairing  machinery,  tilling  fields,  and  threshing  grain, 
but  they  are  using  their  big  hearts  in  bringing  new  hope  and  joy 
into  the  lives  of  the  people  among  whom  they  are  working. 

"Do  you  ask  what  place  a  Christmas  entertainment  has  in  the 
stern  business  of  reconstruction?     The  French  people  will  answer 


198  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

that  it  has  a  most  important  place.  Upon  the  present  children 
of  France  will  rest  a  staggering  burden.  The  birth-rate,  which 
was  too  low  before  the  war,  has  been  cut  in  half.  Two  million 
of  the  younger  men  have  been  killed  or  permanently  injured. 
Children  such  as  those  told  of  below  must  bear  the  burden  of  a 
debt-burdened,  war-drained  country. 

"All  the  heroic,  buoyant  spirit  that  has  preserved  France 
in  the  past  will  be  required.  I'or  three  years  the  spirits  of  these 
children  have  been  crushed  under  the  weight  of  a  calamity  they 
could  not  understand.  Occasions  such  as  that  described  below 
help  to  produce  a  nonnal  childhood  in  preparation  for  the  tasks 
ahead." 

Parvin  M.  Russell  writes  from  Gruny,  Sonune,  France, 
12—30—1917  :— 

"To  begin  with,  the  little  school  here  had  to  be  discontinued 
when  the  Germans  took  possession  in  1914,  and  since  they  almost 
demolished  it  when  leaving  last  spring,  one  of  our  first  steps 
was  to  rebuild  the  large  holes  in  the  brick  walls,  put  on  a  good 
slate  roof  and  replace  the  broken  windows  and  doors.  As  a  re- 
sult, school  was  started  again  this  fall  in  one  small  room,  the 
teacher  using  a  table  for  herself,  having  neither  books  nor  black- 
board, very  few  pencils  or  other  equipment — not  even  a  separate 
chair  for  herself,  and  the  children  ranging  from  about  5  to  12 
years,  all  together  and  seated  on  plain  benches  with  no  back 
supports  (except  that  they  might  lean  against  the  wall)  and  with 
nothing  to  write  on  except  several  old  flat  top  tables.  To  add 
to  the  difficulties  of  equipment  and  environment,  you  may  imagine 
what  a  proposition  it  was  to  handle  the  older  children  who  had 
experienced  nothing  more  than  a  desultory  sort  of  home  discipline 
for  three  years.  Practically  none  of  the  older  children  could  read, 
and  progress  was  of  course  exceedingly  slow.  But  with  time 
a  much  larger  room  was  put  in  shape,  accommodating  a  number 
of  nice  new  desks  of  graded  sizes,  the  walls  had  been  white- 
washed to  improve  the  light,  and  about  two  weeks  before  Christ- 
mas the  school  moved  into  the  new  room.     It  was  almost  pathetic 


RELIEF  WORK  199 

that  in  the  necessary  haste  of  preparing  for  them,  we  could 
only  put  up  a  long  board  with  a  number  of  nails  in  it  as  a  coat 
rack,  but  of  course  it  is  the  essential  usefulness  that  counts  and 
not  appearances,  now.  Then  a  consi.miment  of  new  books  arrived, 
and  other  equipment,  putting  the  soliool  on  a  working  basis  once 
more,  and  all  as  a  precedent  for  our  Christmas  party! 

PREPARATIONS    FOR   CHRISTMAS 

"Four  of  the  fellows  in  our  group  here  had  received  a  con- 
siderable Eum  of  money  from  some  friends  in  New  York,  to  pro- 
vide a  real  Christmas  for  the  children  of  the  village.  Plans 
had  been  arranged  well  in  advance,  and  one  of  the  boys  had 
gone  to  Paris  to  obtain  the  necessary  gifts,  useful  and  entertain- 
ing. 

"Snow  came.  A  series  of  deep  frosts  followed,  and  a  bright 
moon  came  at  night.  The  ruined  village  was  lost ;  in  its  place 
we  saw  quaint  Christmas-card  pictures,  with  impossibly  bright 
moonlight,  and  little  cottages  snuggling  down  into  the  snow, 
their  single  lights  twinkling  like  stars  of  inside  warmth  and  hospi- 
tality. In  spite  of  the  wrecks  under  the  snow,  it  seemed  like 
Christmas. 

''It  came  time  to  open  the  mysterious  black-papered  bundles 
of  toys  that  Murray  had  brought  from  Paris.  Our  dining-room 
tables  were  loaded  down  with  great  heaps  of  dolls  and  sail-boats 
and  toy  animals  and  horns.  Less  conspicuous,  but  equally  Christ- 
masy  were  the  toy  watches,  and  real  watches  (for  a  few  older 
children),  the  pocket  knives  and  the  scissors.  In  great  colored 
heaps  were  the  good  practical  knitted  caps,  sweaters,  mittens 
and  stockings  sent  from  home.  Each  child  was  to  have  a  set,  and 
a  handkerchief  and  a  cake  of  soap. 

"Mademoiselle,  the  school-mistress,  gave  us  all  the  children's 
names,  and  we  knew  tlicui  well  enough  to  put  the  right  things 
in  the  right  bundles.  By  the  end  of  the  evening  the  toy  shop 
had  disappeared  and  in  its  stead  was  a  pile  of  thirty-seven  goodly 
))undles,  each  bearing  a  name  and  a  picture  card  with  'Bon 
Noel/ 


200  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

"Talk  at  meals  for  several  days  was  largely  concerned  with 
the  problem,  Would  it  be  right  to  take  a  certain  spruce  from  be- 
hind a  certain  mined  house.  The  night  the  paper  chains  were 
made  for  the  Christmas  tree — (not  the  spruce  after  all,  but  a  tall 
cedar) — the  dining-room  saw  a  strange  sight.  Hands  hardened 
by  axes  and  hammers  were  pasting  little  strips  of  gold  and 
silver  paper — these  great  big  fellows  were  returning  to  their 
kindergarten  days,  preparing  the  Christmas  party. 

"The  party  was  on  Christmas  eve.  The  day  before  a  load 
of  our  fellows  arrived  from  Ham.  It  was  a  home-coming  for 
some  of  them,  for  our  equipe  is  very  much  of  a  family,  and 
if  you  leave,  you're  glad  to  come  back  even  for  a  visit.  They 
were  kept  busy;  some  men  decorating  the  school-room  with  ever- 
green boughs,  others  carrying  chairs,  others  rehearsing  the  musi- 
cal part  of  the  program,  another  group  working  on  the  odds 
and  ends  for  next  day's  dinner — seeding  raisins,  cracking  nuts, 
peeling  chestnuts.  The  boys  kept  me  busy  giving  them  jobs — 
they  ranged  from  grinding  dry  bread  in  a  coffee  mill  to  plucking 
pinfeathers  out  of  the  turkeys  with  pincers! 

"And  finally  two  o'clock  arrived — evening  begins  early  in  this 
dark  and  wintry  country.  Well  ahead  of  time,  Gruny  had  as- 
sembled in  the  'Ecole  Communale,'  it  was  the  first  time  in  three 
years.  Three  Christmases  had  gone  uncelebrated  and  now  three 
nations  were  celebrating  Christmas  together.  No  wonder  the 
children  in  the  front  rows  were  thrilled  and  restless  for  things  to 
start!  No  wonder  the  rows  and  rows  of  benches  were  crowded 
with  best  shawls  and  Sunday  'kerchiefs. 

"Music  started  the  program.  It  is  surprising  how  these  chil- 
dren enjoy  music;  ordinarily,  the  music  alone  would  have  quite 
contented  them,  but  how  can  you  sit  perfectly  still  when  your 
mind  is  filled  with  your  recitation  and  your  curiosity  as  to  the 
contents  of  those  packages  under  that  Christmas  tree? 

"The  little  tots,  standing  on  their  chairs  in  front  so  as  not 
to  be  hidden,  turned  to  face  the  audience  and  began  their  part 
with  a  song.  Then  came  recitations,  most  of  them  short,  but 
spoken  with  fine  spirit  and   expression.     I   kept  wondering   if 


BELIEF  WORK  201 

Americans  so  young  could  do  so  well.  One  of  the  girls  wlio 
showed  grave  signs  of  stage-fright  heard  her  mother's  cheer- 
ful advice  from  the  back  of  the  room:  We  pleurez  pas  I' — (Don't 
cry!) 

"Best  of  all  was  a  little  girl  so  tiny  that  she  had  to  be  stood 
on  a  chair  to  be  seen.  Without  fear,  and  unprompted,  she  told 
the  story  of  her  little  finger,  which  she  held  up  as  high  as  her 
general  chubbiness  would  permit. 

^•Much  as  we  enjoyed  the  performances  of  the  children,  how- 
ever, it  was  none  other  than  the  Mayor  who  afforded  us  the  most 
genuine  amusement  of  the  day.  One  of  our  men,  Parnell,  was 
performing  a  number  of  tricks,  among  which  was  the  feature 
of  apparently  swallowing  a  dozen  needles,  and  a  yard  of  thread, 
separately,  and  then  drawing  the  thread  out  with  the  needles, 
all  dangling  from  it,  neatly  threaded.  There  was  not  a  face  but 
was  blank  with  amazement  and  wonder,  but  the  Mayor  with  all 
dignity  forsaken  leaned  forward  with  mouth  wide  open,  and  with 
tongue  describing  the  most  comical  movements  as  the  needles, 
one  after  another,  issued  from  Pamell's  lips.  That  picture  will 
only  die  with  memory  itself. 

GIFTS  ARE  DISTRIBUTED 

"When  the  moment  came  for  the  distribution  of  the  gifts, 
thirty-five  boys  and  girls  were  transported  into  a  state  of  anxious 
ecstasy,  for  although  the  bundles  had  been  carefully  prepared 
and  each  one  labeled  with  a  name,  who  could  not  tell  but  that  one 
name  might  have  been  lost  or  one  bundle  misplaced  ?  So  the  little 
hearts  thumped  and  the  fears  grew,  as  one  after  another  the 
names  were  called,  and  the  packages  beneath  the  tree  became 
fewer  and  fewer,  but  how  the  waiting  faces  lit  up  at  the  sound 
of  their  respective  names,  and  how  the  little  fonns  forsook 
their  places  witli  the  alacrity  of  corn  in  the  i)()pper  when  all  tlio 
fears  of  a  possible  disappointment  dissolved  in  an  armful  of  won- 
ders! 

"Then  we  learned  what  French  'compliments'  are.  A  little 
girl  stood  up  and  read,  with  the  sincerity  of  real  appreciation, 


202  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

a  statement  of  appreciation  and  thanks  on  behalf  of  the  school 
children;  an  older  girl  read  a  similar  document  on  behalf  of 
'les  civiles,'  and  finally  quite  unexpectedly,  the  Mayor  arose  with 
a  'compliment'  of  his  own  writing  which  he  read  in  the  name  of 
the  Commune,  with  a  deep  sincerity.  It  was  a  beautiful  state- 
ment; one  that  moistened  the  eyes  of  many  of  the  people.  We 
all  prize  this  very  highly;  besides  expressing  appreciation  for  the 
actual  labors  of  our  hands,  it  shows  an  understanding  of  the 
fundamental  reason  for  our  coming. 

"Little  bags  of  candy  were  there  for  the  children,  and  little 
tarts  for  their  parents;  and  before  we  sang  'America,'  it  was  an- 
nounced that  one  sack  of  potatoes  for  each  family  was  waiting 
at  the  Agricultural  equipe.  As  the  people  went  out,  each  and 
every  one  shook  hands  with  each  of  us  near  the  door,  and  they 
were  grateful  handshakes  on  both  sides!  We  had  initiated  the 
party;  Gruny  had  given  us  its  Christmas  blessing. 

"None  of  us  knows  the  story  of  the  opening  of  the  presents 
— that  happened  about  the  home  fires." 

The  sequel  to  the  Christmas  celebration  at  Gruny  is  one 
that  throws  a  charming  light  on  the  gratitude  of  the  French 
and  the  warm  relations  of  friendship  that  had  been  estab- 
lished between  them  and  the  Relief  workers. 

One  of  the  workers  tells , 

"of  happy  children  who  came  to  pay  party  calls  next  day,  and 
the  Mayor's  wife  says  to  us,  'And  when  the  children  are  happy, 
it  makes  the  mothers  happy  too.' 

"The  children  went  into  the  church  and  had  a  grand  christen- 
ing of  their  dolls  on  Christmas  afternoon;  they  had  mass  and 
vespers — then  the  baptism,  with  priest  and  godparents  and 
parents.  Each  child  named  her  doll  after  herself  with  an  'ine' 
added: — Marcello,  Marcelline;  Isabel,  Isabelline.  It  grew  dark 
before  they  were  done,  but  they  found  one  candle  to  light  them 
to  the  end.  None  of  us  saw  it,  but  the  children  came  to  tell 
about  it  afterward." 


RELIEF  WORK  203 

"The  kids  kept  telling-  us  they  were  coming  to  see  us  New 
Year's  Day.  ...  I  tried  to  put  them  off,  because  I  knew  it  would 
interfere  with  work  to  have  a  bunch  of  kids  around  the  house.  .  .  . 

"When  I  came  back  from  my  rounds  New  Year's  afternoon 
there  they  were,  fifteen  or  twenty  kids  sitting  in  a  circle,  per- 
fectly still,  their  legs  dangling  from  their  chairs.  There  was  a 
mumble  of  'Bonne  annee'  and  'Bonne  sante,  M'sieur  Victor^  as 
I  came  in;  then  they  sat  down  again  and  relapsed  into  their 
former  grinning  silence.  Every  time  one  of  the  fellows  came  in, 
they  all  stood  up  to  greet  him  and  wish  him  a  happy  New  Year; 
then  they  would  all  sit  down  again  with  the  same  mysterious 
unanimity. 

"Suddenly  they  all  stood  up.  One  little  girl,  Andree  Gambart, 
took  an  envelope  out  of  her  pocket,  and  read  a  'compliment' — 
a  tribute  to  us  written  in  the  most  formal  style.  I've  got  it  here. 
She  tucked  it  back  in  its  envelope  and  presented  it  to  us  with  a 
bow.  Then  a  little  boy,  Fernand  Caron,  read  and  presented  an- 
other. 

"This  is  Andree's : — 

"'Gentlemen  and  dear  benefactors:  —  In  the  name  of  my 
family,  deeply  touched  by  your  goodness  to  the  children  of 
Gruny,  and  in  my  own  name,  I  come  to-day  on  the  threshold  of 
the  New  Year,  to  address  to  you  my  most  sincere  wishes  for  a 
Happy  New  Year.  My  greatest  thanks  for  the  happy  Christmas 
which  you  gave  us,  which  made  us  forget  the  three  preceding 
years,  passed  in  the  midst  of  the  barbarians.  Although  my  pen 
is  feeble,  believe,  dear  benefactors,  that  these  thanks  come  from 
the  bottom  of  my  heart.  May  the  New  Year  bring  us  victory  and 
I)eace,  so  that  the  place  of  the  absent  ones  may  be  tilled  at  our 
hearthsides,  and  let  us  hope  that  the  next  Christmas  will  be  cele- 
brated by  the  families  all  together. 

"  'Once  more,  dear  benefactors,  with  my  most  sincere  wishes 
for  the  New  Year,  I  thank  you. 

'Andree  Gambart.' 

"And  this  is  Fernand's:  — 

"'Our  Very  Dear  Allies:  —  By  means  of  this  sheet  of  paper 


204  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

we  come  to  wish  you,  I  as  well  as  my  sisters  and  my  family, 
not  forgetting  the  whole  population  of  Gruny, — we  come  to  wish 
you  all  a  good  year  and  perfect  health,  and  to  give  you  our 
thanks  for  the  toys  and  delicacies  which  you  have  given  us,  and 
our  dear  comrades,  and  for  the  Christmas  tree  you  have  made 
for  us,  and  for  the  happy  day  that  we  had  all  together  in  our 
school-house  at  Gruny,  the  school-house  which  you,  dear  Ameri- 
cans, rebuilt.  Let  us  hope  that  the  year  1918  will  be  happier  for 
us  than  those  which  preceded,  and  that  this  war,  which  causes 
so  much  suffering,  so  much  sorrow,  and  so  many  tears  throughout 
'  the  world,  will  soon  be  over,  returning  our  valiant  soldiers,  as 
well  as  you,  dear  Americans,  and  our  dear  English,  who  have 
crossed  the  sea  to  deliver  our  France  from  Prussian  barbarians, 
to  their  homes.  But  we,  like  the  other  people  of  Gruny,  don't 
know  how  to  thank  you  for  the  devotion  which  you  have  shown, 
dear  Americans,  and  our  dear  English,  in  leaving  your  home  lands 
to  deliver  France  from  the  claws  of  the  barbarians.  But  from 
the  bottom  of  our  hearts  we  wish  that  the  war  may  end  this  year, 
so  that  every  one  can  go  home  again. 

''  'Receive,  dear  Americans,  our  sincere  salutations,  and  the 
heartiest  thanks  of  my  family. 

"  Ternand  Caron.'  " 

Before  the  day  was  over,  said  the  man  from  Gruny,  we 
had  had  forty  visitors  and  seven  ^^compliments." 

It  was  not  only  for  exceptional  kindnesses  and  treats  that 
these  ** compliments"  were  penned  as  acknowledgment. 
The  daily  round,  the  common  task  had  furnished  innumer- 
able opportunities  for  the  men  who  were  there  to  look  for 
opportunities  to  give  help  and  comfort. 

"Some  days  they  gave  us  a  lot  to  do.  I  was  putting  in  a 
window  in  the  school-house  one  day  when  a  mother  came  run- 
ning up  excitedly  crying  that  her  baby  was  dying.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  baby  was  in  convulsions,  but  they  were  due  to 
cutting  teeth — not  serious  at  all.    I  succeeded  in  quieting  the 


RELIEF  WORK  205 

motlier,  and  that  quieted  the  child.  But  the  mother  has  been  con- 
vinced ever  since  that  I  saved  the  baby's  life. 

"That  same  evening-,  just  after  supper,  in  came  a  French- 
man stumbling  in  excitement.  'Come  quick,'  he  said;  'Jeanne  is 
dying.' 

"Jeanne  was  his  twelve-year-old  daughter;  she  had  been  sick, 
very  sick;  and  she  kept  sick  because  she  would  not  stay  in  bed. 
I  hurried  over  there,  and  found  the  household  in  an  awful  shape. 
There  were  the  mother  and  five  kids,  one  girl  of  sixteen, — the 
most  excitable  creature  imaginable; — Jeanne;  and  three  little 
ones,  all  crying.  Jeanne  was  back  in  bed.  Her  mother  told  me 
she  had  had  convulsions  and  nearly  died.  She  really  was  sick — 
some  kidney  trouble;  her  hands,  feet  and  face  were  all  swollen. 
I  stayed  and  worked  over  her  until  after  one,  with  hot  packs 
and  compresses,  and  finally  got  her  quieted.  After  that  I  used 
to  go  and  see  her  every  day.  Just  before  I  left  Jeanne's  mother 
came  to  me  and  said,  'You've  saved  Jeanne's  life  and  my  life 
too.'  (She  had  an  infected  foot,  which  I  used  to  dress  every 
day.)     'What  shall  we  do  without  youf 

"That  sort  of  thing  makes  it  worth  while." 

Readiness  for  sudden  emergency  was  one  of  the  qualities 
demanded  of  the  Relief  worker,  whatever  his  specialty  of 
work  might  normally  be.  Imagine  the  organizing  power 
and  adaptability  required  of  the  Bettancourt  equipe  when 
they  had  to  prepare  at  a  moment 's  notice  for  the  reception 
of  over  sixty  children  evacuated  from  Bar-le-Duc  on  ac- 
count of  increased  bombardment.  No  telegraphing  for  sup- 
plies to  come  in  by  Express — what  was  already  stretched  to 
what  seemed  its  utmost  limit  had  to  be  made  to  go  further, 
and  the  district  ransacked  for  makeshift  material.  IMore- 
over,  men  whose  hands  seemed  already  occupied  to  the  full 
and  more,  had  to  find  time  to  bathe  and  discipline  the  mot- 
ley crowd  of  bo3's,  while  the  women  workers  had  to  accept 
the  girls  as  part  of  their  day's  work. 


206  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

"The  family  were  taken  for  a  walk  every  possible  afternoon  by 
two  preceptors.  One  brought  up  the  rear  with  a  fat  black- 
pinafored  twin  on  each  side,  and  the  other  skirmished  lightly  up 
and  down  the  road,  trying  to  guard  the  communal  apple-trees 
that  lined  it.  It  took  an  agile  man  to  do  this — as  easily  keep  a 
swarm  of  bees  off  honey;  but  to  the  credit  of  the  preceptors  be 
it  said  that  in  time  and  after  kindly  discipline  the  boys  would 
pass  an  apple-tree  and  only  glean  the  fallen  ones.  ...  It  was 
amazing  how  many  apples  they  could  eat  and  be  no  worse — 
saving  only  one  twin,  who  made  his  suffering  so  audible  one 
night  that  he  had  to  be  carried  down  to  the  fire  and  warmed  and 
comforted." 

This  crush  only  lasted  for  about  three  weeks,  and  then  the 
children  moved  on  and  Bettancourt  resumed  its  wonted 
calm  of  regular  work.  Another  curious  piece  of  emergency 
work  was  the  evacuating  of  the  Amiens  Insane  Asylum,  and 
the  conveying  of  800  insane  patients  from  Amiens  to  a 
refuge  up  in  the  Pyrenees.  This  work  was  given  to  the 
American  Red  Cross  by  the  French  Department  of  the 
Interior,  and  was  immediately  turned  over  by  them  to  the 
Friends  Unit. 

W.  H.  writes,  first  from  Paris : 

"All  well  and  safe  so  far.  We  have  had  an  exciting  experi- 
ence carrying  wounded  soldiers  and  helping  fugitive  civilians 
with  shells  dropping  down  like  hail.  Dodging  them  is  anything 
but  pleasant.  My  ears  are  still  a  bit  deaf  from  the  noise.  Groups 
have  been  formed  who  will  take  fugitive  trains  as  they  pass 
through  Paris  and  go  with  them  to  some  village  in  southern 
France.  There  we  will  help  arrange  for  food  and  lodging,  then 
return  for  another  train.  Others  of  us  are  still  north  with  the 
American  Red  Cross. 

"I  just  returned  from  a  big  hunt  for  canteen  materials  to  feed 


RELIEF  WORK  207 

the  refugees.  A  report  just  in  of  a  thousand  refugees  to  be 
housed  to-night.     Something  new  happens  every  minute.  .  .  . 

"Again  on  the  move.  I  am  now  at  Lourdes,  in  the  Pyrenees 
Mountains.  High,  snow-capped  mountains  rise  on  every  side. 
What  a  change  it  is  from  the  Hat  Somme.  Not  many  hours 
after  I  last  wrote  from  Paris,  a  call  came  for  help  in  conveying 
and  placing  some  800  insane  refugees  down  here.  So  0.  S.,  C.  M., 
I.  H.,  six  others  and  myself  responded  to  the  emergency  call, 
though  all  were  dead  tired. 

"After  leaving  Bordeaux  we  passed  through  miles  of  pine. 
We  had  to  stand,  all  this  part  of  the  journey,  which  lasted  five 
hours." 

Then  two  engines  hooked  on,  and  the  train  began  to  climb 
up  into  the  Pyrenees,  the  scenery  increasing  in  beauty  and 
majesty  every  hour. 

"We  arrived  at  Lourdes  at  6:30,  the  sun  still  thirty  degrees 
above  the  horizon.  We  had  a  good  supper  and  then  reported 
at  the  hospital,  where  we  had  the  pleasant  job  of  helping  the 
insane  patients  to  bed.  The  long  ride  had  made  them  quite  wild. 
Some  had  had  to  be  strait-jacketed  on  the  road.  In  general,  all 
they  needed  was  leading.  About  half  of  them  are  women. 
Most  of  the  men  are  soldiers,  and  are  suffering  from  shell-shock. 
Our  job  now  is  to  guard  the  place  at  night,  as  there  are  no 
bars  to  the  windows. 

"This  is  the  strangest  job  and  with  the  strangest  people  I  have 
ever  seen.  Lourdes  is  a  famous  Catholic  center  for  missions. 
The  waters  here  are  supposed  to  heal  all  diseases.  Fine  church 
bells  peal  in  the  mountain  air  continually.  The  early  part  of 
last  night  I  was  on  outside  watch.  Every  fifteen  minutes  the 
chimes  rang  out.  On  a  mountain  across  the  way  a  cross  stands 
illuminated  all  night. 

"I  tended  lower  hall  in  the  early  morning.  A  number  of  the 
men   talked   loudly   in   their   sleep,   and   occasionally   one   would 


208  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

get  up  and  appear  on  the  scene  with  practically  no  cover.     We 
take  him  gently  by  the  shoulders  and  lead  him  back  to  bed. 

"This  work  is  just  temporary.  In  a  week  we  shall  have  to 
move  these  men  farther  into  the  mountains,  and  then  their  nurses 
can  take  entire  care  of  them.  .  .  ." 

The  diary  of  C.  M.  adds  the  following  details : 

"Some  little  interest  was  aroused  by  a  man  who  until  yester- 
day had  been  working,  but  now  for  two  days  has  been  lying 
on  his  back  quietly  saying:  *0h,  la,  la,  I  am  dead.'  Then  look- 
ing at  his  fingers  and  stretching  them  in  proof,  ^No,  I'm  not  dead.' 
Then  again,  'Oh,  I'm  dead.'  Over  and  over, — no  sleep,  no  com- 
fort. They  have  put  his  hands  in  socks  to  try  to  keep  his  at- 
tention off  them. 

"The  place  is  quiet  by  ten.  The  head  doctor  has  come  around 
and  chatted;  said  how  sorry  he  was  to  have  us  leave  him  so 
soon ;  that  our  guarding  has  made  a  record  unheard  of.  Not  one 
escaped. 

"11:30 — The  poor  fellow  who  keeps  thinking  himself  dead  is 
quietly  snoring.  He  can  have  no  question  as  to  his  being  alive 
now,  for  he  has  gotten  up  and  refuses  to  lie  down.  He  talks 
loudly  and  wildly.  A  second  guard  rushes  down  from  upstairs. 
Two  others  follow.  A  more  learned  day-guard  is  called,  and  a 
Blue  Sister  appears.  There  is  a  struggle  for  a  time;  arms  and 
legs  bound  do  not  hold  him  quiet;  he  keeps  talking,  shouting; 
then  sobs  a  bit.  They  slap  his  face — (it  doesn't  look  like  very  en- 
lightened treatment — )  and  throw  him  to  the  floor.  He  is  finally 
tied  in  bed;  water  dashed  in  his  face.  He  talks  so  excitedly  that 
his  bed  is  taken  into  the  hall. 

"2 :30 — He  kept  talking  a  long  time  but  has  quieted  down  now. 

"6:00 — The  change  of  guards.  It  hardly  is  light,  but  the  day 
doorman  soon  appears,  and  the  key  is  being  handed  over.  We 
set  out  for  petit  dejeuner  and  bed." 


CHAPTER  XV 

BUILDING  AND  RECONSTRUCTION 

Last  summer  on  my  farm  in  Maine  I  was  cutting  down  a 
large  hemlock  tree  one  day  by  the  shore  of  the  lake.  As  I 
cut  into  the  hollow  center  of  the  great  tree  I  found  that  I 
had  unexpectedly  invaded  the  home  of  a  million  ants.  The 
ax  smote  unpityingly  through  their  habitation  and  produced 
a  scene  of  wild  commotion.  Many  of  them  were  cut  in 
two  by  the  sudden  blow  of  the  ax.  Their  eggs  were  crushed 
beyond  repair.  Their  provisions  for  the  winter  were 
thrown  in  all  directions.  There  was  a  mad  scramble  for 
safety.  Every  ant  started  to  go  somewhere,  carrying  some- 
thing as  though  it  had  all  been  arranged  in  advance.  It 
was  a  refugee  exodus  in  great  numbers,  though  the  indi- 
viduals were  of  pigmy  size,  with  little  forecast  of  the  woes 
to  follow. 

In  my  sorrow  for  what  I  had  unwittingly  done  I  thought 
at  once  of  the  corresponding  scenes  on  a  larger  scale  when 
the  great  drives  of  the  war  smote  down  through  the  quiet, 
happy  towns  and  villages  of  the  ]\Iame,  the  Meuse,  the 
Aisne,  the  Somme  and  many  another  section  of  northern 
France.  The  shells  which  fell  upon  these  homes  left  almost 
nothing  standing.  What  the  ax  did  for  the  tiny  bodies  of 
the  ants  the  shells  did  for  the  women  and  the  children  who 
happened  to  be  in  the  path  of  the  fragments  into  which  the 
shells  were  blown.  A  similar  exodus  followed.  There  was 
a  wild  rush  for  the  precious  things  of  the  household  and 

209 


210  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

siich  a  procession  as  only  war  can  produce  streamed  south 
from  every  hamlet.  Carts  drawn  by  donkey,  dog  or  cow 
carried  children,  bedding  and  the  few  things  saved  in  the 
frightened  hurry.  There  were  pitiable  separations.  In- 
valids were  left  behind,  too  ill  to  go.  Tragedies  were  en- 
acted which  wrote  themselves  ineffaceably  on  the  tablets  of 
human  hearts.  At  first,  as  soon  as  it  became  safe  to  do  so, 
the  refugees  crept  back  to  live  in  the  cellars  or  amid  the 
ruins  of  their  beloved  villages,  but  the  experiment  proved 
costly.  The  cellar  life  and  the  terrible  exposures  to  weather 
produced  a  great  amount  of  tuberculosis  and  kindred  dis- 
eases. Gradually  the  authorities  forbade  the  refugees  to 
return  to  their  villages  until  they  had  suitable  homes  to 
live  in.     This  situation  gave  us  our  call. 

The  house  building  work  was  well  under  way  before  the 
American  Unit  arrived  but  we  were  able  to  give  it  great 
expansion  by  bringing  on  the  scene  a  large  group  of  effi- 
cient house-builders.  The  first  factory — the  one  in  opera- 
tion when  we  came  in — was  at  Dole,  in  the  Jura.  This  is  a 
very  interesting,  picturesque  town  on  the  swift-flowing 
Doubs.  It  was  here,  in  a  little  street  which  now  bears  his 
name,  that  Pasteur  was  born.  When  the  war  broke  upon 
them  the  people  of  the  town  were  building  a  large  impres- 
sive school-building,  the  solid  stone  walls  of  which  were  one 
story  high,  when  all  the  men  were  suddenly  called  to  mobil- 
ize These  walls  were  roofed  over  by  the  English  Friends 
and  here  a  house-building  factory  was  constructed.  Bar- 
racks were  put  in  an  open  field  about  a  mile  from  the  fac- 
tory for  the  living  quarters  of  the  workers,  and  here  about 
fifty  men  settled  in  to  make  portable  houses  after  a  well- 
chosen  design.  The  lumber  was  supplied  by  the  govern- 
ment and  came  in  by  trains  from  the  forests  of  Alpine  foot- 
hills, not  far  away.     The  houses  were  generally  of  three 


BUILDING  AND  RECONSTRUCTION  211 

rooms,  though  as  they  were  built  in  sections  they  could  be 
either  larger  or  smaller  as  need  dictated.  They  were  made 
of  planed  matched  boards  and  were  double  with  an  air 
space  between  the  outer  and  inner  boards.  The  floors,  too, 
were  matched  with  tongue  and  groove.  The  roofs  were  built 
to  take  tile  covering,  the  latter  being  supplied  from  the 
region  where  the  house  was  to  be  set  up.  They  were  well 
supplied  with  windows  and  doors  and  when  they  were  con- 
structed they  were  stained  a  pretty  brown  to  fit  the  roof- 
tiles. 

While  the  men  were  training  at  Haverford  J.  Henry  Scat- 
tergood  and  some  of  the  English  workers  planned  another 
factory  at  Ornans,  in  the  department  of  Doubs.  They 
found  and  got  the  rent  of  an  automobile  factory  on  the 
banks  of  the  Loue  which  rushes  through  the  town.  They 
also  took  over  an  absinthe  factory  to  serve  as  living  quarters 
for  the  workers.  A  large  part  of  the  mill  machinery  was 
bought  in  America  and  was  a  part  of  the  material  which 
got  hung  up  in  the  shipping  jam  at  the  time  when  our  first 
body  of  workers  went  over.  After  heart-breaking  delays, 
however,  the  machinery  finally  arrived  and  was  installed  by 
our  men  under  the  direction  of  Philip  Hussey  with  Leslie 
Heath  in  charge  of  electric  work.  A  factory  for  doors  and 
windows  was  also  provided  across  the  stream  from  the  larger 
mill.  Ornans  was  beautifully  situated  in  the  French  foot- 
hills of  the  Alps,  about  fifteen  miles  from  Besangon.  The 
town  was  not  large,  but  attractive  and  contained  many 
interesting  families.  Here  about  fifty  men  of  the  Mission, 
at  first  mostly  Americans,  worked  at  houses,  doors  and  win- 
dows. Here  is  a  fine  poem,  written  by  one  of  the  men,  L. 
Griswold  Williams,  which  well  expresses  the  spirit  of  the 
workers : 


212  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 


I 


THE  FRIENDS  RECONSTRUCTION  UNIT— THE 
MANUFACTURING  DEPARTMENT 


IVe  been  making;  windows — 

Oak  windows  in  our  shop  along  the  river — 

Thinking  of  where  they'll  go  and  what  they'll  maybe  do: 

Windows  to  overlook  the  crumpled  roofs  of  clattering  towns, 

To  open  out  across  the  silent  wastedness  of  trampled  farms, 

On  white-scarred  vineyard  slopes, 

Or  shattered  woodlands  healing  at  the  touch  of  Spring. 

Some  may  be  gates  of  magic  liberation, 

Giving  on  living  worlds  of  leaf  and  sky. 

Where  those  whose  feet  can  never  tread  dear  earth 

Shall  send  their  spirits  wandering  far; 

At  these  will  children  climb  to  greet  the  infant  moon, 

Or  press  their  noses  tight,  watching  the  first  snow  feathers  fall; 

Through  here  may  little  breaths  of  morning  murmur; 

This  humble  shrine  day's  glowing  altar  fires.  .  .  . 

And  I've  been  making  doors — 

Doors  that  shall  open  as  a  sheltering  hand  to  harassed  hearts 
Praying  a  solace  in  some  broken  place; 
Doors  guarding  at  last  those  helpless  ones 
Guns  could  not  guard  nor  armies  make  secure. 

Here  homing  age  may  fumble  at  a  lock. 

Or  venturing  youth  push  wide  with  eager  hand; 

This  door  may  usher  Birth  with  hopefulness. 

Close  quietly  when  Death  has  passed  with  friendly  eyes. 

Or  part  relentlessly  two  lovers,  lingering  with  reluctant  lips  at 

dusk; 
Here  may  a  woman  lean  with  shadowed  face, 
Waiting  a  lad — who  lies  in  an  untilled  field.  .  .  . 


BUILDING  AND  RECONSTRUCTION  213 

I've  not  made  doors  and  windows  for  chateaux  or  palaces — 

Only  for  little  wooden  demontables 

To  shelter  mostly  simple  folk 

Dripped  from  the  grinding  jaws  of  War. 

Red  tiles  will  be  for  roof,  the  walls  be  brown,  and  green  the 

white-knobbed  doors. 
The  sections  bolt  together  easily. 
As  barren  as  a  shed  for  animals  almost, 
Until  my  doors  and  windows  make  it — Home.  .  .  . 

0  patient  Master  Workman  of  the  world, 

Shaper  of  all  this  home  of  humankind ! 

Teach  me  the  truer  trade  of  making  doors  and  windows  for  men's 

souls: 
Windows  for  letting  in  Love's  widening  dawn, 
Doors  swinging  outward  freely  on  Truth's  pleasant  ways. 

Each  factory  was  under  a  directing  head  who  was  elected 
by  the  workers  themselves  and  approved  by  the  Paris  Execu- 
tive. The  body  of  workers  in  their  living  quarters  were 
under  the  (?are  and  oversight  of  the  chef  d'  equipe  who, 
again,  was  elected  by  the  men.  They  were  far  from  the 
exciting  world  of  Paris  or  the  war-zones  and  sometimes  the 
work  and  the  life  must  have  seemed  dull  and  routine,  but 
they  had  gone  over  to  express  their  faith  and  love  and  most 
of  them  accepted  the  conditions  in  loj^al  spirit  and  worked 
with  all  their  might.  They  had  plenty  to  eat,  though  it 
was  plain  and  plainly  served,  but  the  fello.wship  and  com- 
radeship gave  a  very  fine  flavor  to  the  life. 

Sometimes  it  was  difficult  to  deliver  the  houses  from  the 
factories  without  long  delays  in  the  railroad  transit,  owing 
to  the  ease  with  which  freight  cars  can  be  shunted  off  on 
side  tracks,  and  forgotten.  To  avoid  this  contingency,  so 
distressing  when  the  workers  in  the  war-zones  were  eagerly 
waiting  for  them  to  arrive,  men  were  occasionally  asked  to 


214  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

volunteer  to  take  the  trip  on  top  of  the  load  of  houses  from 
the  factory  to  the  point  of  destination.  There  were  always 
plenty  of  men  keen  and  ready  for  this  freight-expedition 
which  had  neither  Pullman  nor  dining-car  facilities !  But 
when  a  member  of  the  Mission  was  on  the  load  the  car  was 
not  shunted  to  a  side  track. 

The  work  in  the  factories  was  pushed  along  at  the  best 
available  speed,  sometimes  with  night  shift  of  workers,  but 
even  so  the  houses  could  not  be  turned  out  fast  enough  to 
supply  the  demand  of  the  returning  refugees  or  of  the 
building  department.  To  meet  the  emergency,  arising  after 
the  signing  of  the  armistice,  the  reconstruction  department 
of  the  French  government  promised  the  Mission  a  supply 
of  two  thousand  portable  houses  to  supplement  our  own  out- 
put. Only  a  part  of  this  number  were  actually  received 
and  that,  too,  after  a  long  wait,  but  the  assistance  to  our 
work  was  very  valuable.  This  arrangement  enabled  the 
Mission  to  close  down  the  factory  at  Omans  (and  later  at 
Dole)  and  turn  in  the  men  of  these  two  equipes  to  help  in 
the  work  of  the  zones  where  the  actual  reconstruction  was 
going  forward. 

The  new  men  as  they  arrived  from  America  were  pretty 
generally  sent  first  to  Dole  or  Ornans  to  have  an  apprentice 
period  at  manufacturing  houses  unless  they  had  outstanding 
gifts  and  qualifications  which  plainly  marked  them  out  for 
a  special  piece  of  work  just  then  waiting  to  be  done.  As 
■the  new  men  came  into  the  manufacturing  equipes  the  older 
workers,  who  had  served  their  turn  of  manufacturing  on  the 
banks  of  the  Doubs  or  the  Loue,  were  told  off  for  some  other 
task  in  Paris  or  in  the  devastated  areas,  so  that  Dole  and 
Ornans  always  had  a  somewhat  shifting  population  of 
workers.  Thus  a  very  large  number  of  our  entire  group 
of  men  in  the  Mission  had  a  longer  or  shorter  period  of 


BUILDING  AND  RECONSTRUCTION  215 

life  in  Dole  or  Ornans  and  had  some  part  in  the  making  of 
houses. 

The  building  department  had  a  wholly  different  task  and 
a  very-  different  life.  The  workers  in  this  department  went 
out  often  to  the  very  frontiers  of  civilian  life.  They  were 
quartered  not  seldom  in  the  midst  of  debris  and  in  a  silent, 
deserted  world  where  havoc  had  worked  its  full  measure  of 
desolation.  Sometimes  they  repaired  broken  roofs  and 
made  half-destroyed  houses  habitable,  sometimes  they  found 
no  houses  complete  enough  to  warrant  repairs.  Their  main 
work  was  the  construction  of  demountable  houses,  furnished 
to  them  by  the  manufacturing  department  and  the  transport 
department.  The  parts  of  the  houses  came  in  on  motor 
trucks  from  the  nearest  railway  center  and  the  builders 
''did  the  rest." 

To  rebuild  the  school  and  provide  a  teacher  was  one  of 
the  first  tasks  undertaken  by  the  Friends  in  Gruny,  a  speci- 
men village.  A  passer-by  gives  a  glimpse  of  the  building 
work: 

".  .  .  We  saw  two  more  brown-overalled  figures,  H.  and  M., 
with  arm  loads  of  sound  boards  which  they  had  filched  out  of 
the  remnants  of  a  completely  destroyed  house  and  were  carry- 
ing over  to  the  house  they  were  repairing.  It  didn't  look  much 
of  a  home,  that  house.  But  when  you  studied  it  a  bit  more  closely, 
and  saw  how  much  had  already  been  done,  you  appreciated  what 
the  boys  were  doing.  They  had  had  to  put  in  a  new  I-beam, 
and  half  the  roof  was  slated.  They  had  patched  up  broken  parts 
of  the  wall  and  iiTadually  that  house  was  becoming  habitable. 
As  fa.st  as  the  houses  are  finished  the  sous-prefet  sends  in  another 
refugee  family.  .  .  . 

"Down  a  side-road  we  caught  a  glimpse  of  some  more  Friend 
boys,  English  and  American,  busily  cleaning  bricks  to  finish  a 
side-wall  which  was  nearly  completed.  They  pointed  out  half-a- 
dozen  near-by  houses  with  roofs  patched  with  slates  of  a  darker 


216  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

color,  brought  from  the  other  end  of  the  village,  where  the  de- 
struction had  been  much  worse.  .  .  . 

"When  you  give  a  family  even  a  tiny  two-roomed  shelter 
to  live  in  where  there  was  nothing  but  a  heap  of  dust  and  a  few 
jagged  bits  of  stone  and  plaster,  you  have  given  it  something  to 
call  home." 

The  new  hope  and  cheer  brought  into  the  lives  of  these 
peasants  by  the  presence  and  work  of  the  Friends  is  some- 
thing that  cannot  be  measured  by  counting  a  few  hundred 
houses  repaired  or  set  up  in  a  wilderness  of  desolation; 
yet  in  many  places  a  beautiful  wilderness,  for  grass  and 
wild  flowers  began  to  cover  all  scars,  and  the  roses  and 
nasturtiums  and  asters  began  to  flower  luxuriantly  in  the 
ruined  gardens.  * '  What  was  under  the  ground ' '  war  could 
not  kill. 

"It  is  splendid,"  writes  another  worker,  "to  see  things  getting 
done;  jobs  being  finished — and  finished  in  such  a  way  that  they 
are  neither  blots  on  the  landscape  nor  obviously  repairs.  I'm 
thinking  specially  of  one  slate  roof  that  was  in  a  most  hopelessly 
moth-eaten  condition — now  it  looks  as  if  nothing  had  happened — 
even  lichens  are  growing  on  the  slates.  It  will  be  that  way  with 
much  of  our  work;  although  it  will  not  be  so  easy  to  show  off 
or  point  to  what  we  have  done — it  is  far  more  satisfying  to  think 
of  healing  without  leaving  conspicuous  scars. 

"The  school-house  is  one  of  the  biggest  jobs — and  the  first  one 
to  be  undertaken.  It  was  very  badly  damaged  and  is  requiring 
a  lot  of  brickwork.  P.,  an  Englishman,  is  a  professional  mason ; 
he  has  been  working  hard  at  this;  yet  you  do  not  notice  the  new 
work  at  all  without  careful  examination  of  the  mortar.  They 
had  a  little  ceremony  of  a  corner-stone  when  the  work  was  first 
begun.  The  neighborhood  was  invited,  and  the  Mayor  read  a 
document  composed  for  the  occasion,  explaining  the  work  of  the 
Friends,  and  proposing  to  place  a  tablet  on  the  spot  later  on. 
A  cent,  an  English  penny,  and  a  French  sou  were  put  in  the  wall, 


Buildino'  Demountable  Houses 


BUILDING  AND  RECONSTRUCTION  217 

along  with   a   copy   of  the   Mayor's   speech   signed   by   all  wit- 
nesses.    Another  copy  of  this  is  held  by  the  Mayor." 

In  many  villages  it  was  not  felt  to  be  desirable  to  put 
the  new  houses  on  the  sites  of  the  old  ones,  since  the  owners 
usually  preferred  to  leave  the  ruins  undisturbed  until  their 
indemnity  had  been  settled.  Indemnities  were  always  in 
their  minds,  and  they  believed,  probably  rightly,  that  great 
heaps  of  ruin  would  make  a  much  stronger  appeal  upon  the 
indemnity  officials  than  would  a  pretty  new  cottage !  In 
cases  where  the  houses  were  not  desired  on  the  old  spot,  an 
attractive  location  was  selected  near  the  former  village  and 
a  new  cite  was  built,  consisting  usually  of  a  main  street  with 
rows  of  houses  on  either  side,  not  far  separated  from  each 
other.  The  number  of  houses  to  be  built  was  generally  de- 
termined by  the  mayor  of  the  village  if  he  could  be  found. 
He  would  make  lists  of  existing  families,  or  parts  of  fami- 
lies large  enough  to  occupy  a  house.  The  Cure  of  the  local 
church  also  had  intimate  knowledge  of  the  little  community 
and  could  assist,  as  he  almost  always  did,  in  the  plans  for 
reconstruction. 

The  foundations  of  the  cottages  were  carefully  laid  and 
then  when  the  loads  of  house-parts  arrived — which  they  did 
not  always  do  at  the  expected  date ! — the  men  worked  like 
beavers  putting  them  up.  They  became  great  experts  at 
this  job.  Sometimes  a  group  of  them  ' '  raced ' '  with  another 
near-by  group  to  see  which  could  get  its  house  done  first. 
But  hurry  did  not  mean  faulty  work.  The-  houses  were 
built  ''on  honor"  and  every  part  of  every  one  had  to  be 
right.  Labor  hours  were  not  shortened  to  the  modern  scale 
nor  was  the  speed  of  work  the  sort  one  has  learned  to  expect 
from  laborers.  Where  volunteers  labor  under  the  incentive 
of  love  there  is  sure  to  be- drive  and  energy  as  there  certainly 


218  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

was  in  this  case.  I  have  already  spoken  of  the  Marne  and 
the  Somme  and  the  two  large  regions  of  reconstruction  be- 
fore the  work  of  the  ''Verdun  area"  was  undertaken. 
There  was  besides  a  quite  extensive  work  in  what  may  be 
called  the  Chatillon  district.  It  lies  about  half  way  between 
Chateau-Thierry  and  Rheims — a  beautiful  ridge  of  fertile 
country  abounding  in  vineyards  and  excellent  for  wheat. 
Our  men  began  their  work  for  this  region  first  at  Chateau- 
Thierry  itself,  soon  after  the  famous  battle.  Then  Chatil- 
lon-sur-j\Iarne  became  the  central  equipe  for  a  large  sur- 
rounding district  which  had  suffered  terribly  during  the 
great  drive  and  retreat.  Everything  had  gone  down  before 
the  big  shells  and  homes  no  longer  existed.  As  usual  there 
was  a  combination  of  construction  work,  relief  work  and 
agricultural  work,  but  the  great  need  was  for  homes  so  that 
the  peasants  could  come  back  and  re-cultivate  their  rich 
soil.  Many  of  the  vineyards  had  been  ruined  by  poison 
gases  and  the  land  needed  quick  attention.  The  important 
centres  for  reconstruction  in  this  district  w^ere  Chatillon 
itself,  Verneuil,  Olizy,  Cuchery,  Champlat,  Chaumuzy  and 
the  famous*  battle  town,  Ville-en-Tardenois.  Some  of  the 
houses  were  repaired  and  re-roofed.  In  other  cases  new 
houses  were  built  after  the  manner  already  described.  The 
work  in  this  region  was  pushed  rapidly  forward,  lasting 
only  through  the  winter  following  the  armistice  when  the 
men  went  on  to  join  in  the  great  concentrated  tasks  laid 
upon  us  in  the  Meuse,  i.  e.  the  Verdun  region  lying  between 
the  city  of  Verdun  on  the  east  and  the  western  margin  of 
the  Argonne  forest.  I  shall  have  more  to  say  of  building 
in  the  next  chapter  which  relates  to  this  crowning  work  of 
the  ^lission. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  features  of  this  construction 
work  was  the  transforming  effect  which  it  had  upon  the  vil- 


BUILDING  AND  RECONSTRUCTION  219 

lage  people  to  whom  the  relief  came.  Leland  Hadley  has 
given  a  glimpse  of  this  in  one  of  his  home  letters.  Writing 
from  Gruny,  he  says: 

"The  French  people  have  lost  a  lot  of  their  grouch  since  our 
bunch  arrived  on  the  scene.  You  can't  look  anywhere  without 
seeing  some  of  us  and  we're  always  singing,  laughing,  yelling 
from  house  to  house  and  having  a  good  time  while  working. 
Naturally  enough  it  has  loosened  the  natives  up  considerably. 
But  the  best  thing  to  see  is  the  way  the  children  have  relaxed 
since  school  has  started  again  after  being  closed  for  three  years. 
They  come  out  of  school  in  the  evenings — all  the  little  girls  with 
their  hair  braided  and  black  dresses;  and  the  boys  with  little 
gingham  aprons  covering  them  from  shoulder  to  knee,  except 
that  they  only  button  to  the  waist  in  back;  and  with  little 
blue  hats  built  on  the  same  model  as  those  of  the  soldiers  of 
France — they  come  out  of  school  and  actually  play,  pulling 
each  other  in  carts,  etc.  When  we  first  came  nothing  like  that 
was  ever  seen." 

Another  interesting  picture  is  given  in  a  story  v^hich  had 
wide  circulation  during  the  war  and  which  presents  an  early 
incident  in  the  Quaker  reconstruction  work: 

Into  one  of  the  ruined  villages  of  France,  razed  and  desolated 
by  the  Gennans  in  their  retreat,  says  the  World  Outlook,  came 
one  day  a  party  of  the  "Men  in  Gray,"  the  Friends,  or  Quakers, 
of  England,  who,  although  their  religion  will  not  permit  them 
to  fight,  are  spending  their  strength  to  restore  the  ravages  of 
fighting. 

In  that  village  lived  Marie,  who  in  the  pleasant  days  before 
the  war  had  dwelt  happily  with  her  father  and  mother,  her  old 
grandmother  and  baby  brother,  in  a  comfortable  red-roofed  cot- 
tage. Now  the  father  was  at  the  front,  the  cottage  was  bunied, 
and  the  lonely,  frightened,  half-starved  family  of  four  had  taken 
refuge  in  the  corner  of  a  cellar. 

When  Marie  saw  the  "Men  in  Gray"  she  took  courage.     She 


220  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

had  heard  of  the  wonderful  things  done  by  those  quiet  English- 
men with  the  red  and  black  sfear  on  their  sleeves.  Moreover,  she 
was  rich.  She  had  six  sous,  and  was  therefore  in  a  position  to 
undertake  a  real  estate  negotiation*. 

"Maman,"  she  said  to  her  mother,  "would  not  the  'Men  in 
Gray'  build  us  a  cottage  for  my  six  sous'?" 

"Non,  non,"  said  the  mother. 

But   Marie  persisted.     "I  will  ask  them,"   she   announced. 

"You  must  not  troiuble  them.  They  would  laugh  at  you,"  the 
weary,  sad  mother  told  the  little  girl ;  but  Marie  had  the  dauntless 
spirit  of  the  women  of  France,  and  she  was  tired  of  the  dark, 
damp  cellar,  where  Grandmere  coughed  all  night,  and  where  there 
was  no  furniture,  only  rags  to  lie  on.  So  with  her  six  sous 
tight  in  her  hand,  she  stole  forth  and  sought  the  "Men  in  Gray." 

"Sir,"  she  said  to  the  one  who  met  her,  "could  you  build  a 
cottage  with  a  living-room,  kitchen  and  bed-room  for  Grandmere, 
maman,  my  brother  and  me  ?  Could  you  do  it  for  six  sous  ?  See, 
I  have  the  money."  She  opened  her  hand  and  showed  the  coins. 
"Is  it  enough"?" 

The  tall  Friend  never  smiled.  "Quite  enough,"  he  said;  "in 
fact,  I  think  it  can  be  done  with  four  sous.  We  will  build  it 
at  once." 

Marie  got  her  cottage,  a  comfortable  shelter,  with  beds  and  all 
necessaries  in  it,  and  when  everything  was  complete  the  "Man 
in  Gray"  collected  the  four  sous  with  all  the  formality  of  com- 
pleting a  large  transaction. 

In  a  world  where  so  many  humans  seemed  to  have  turned  into 
devils,  doing  things  that  we  supposed  human  beings  had  climbed 
far  above,  incidents  like  these  are  very  cheering.  They  are  an 
earnest  that  when  pea^ee  has  returned  not  only  will  the  desolated 
regions  be  restored  as  well  as  modem  skill  and  labor  can  restore 
them-,  but  the  work  will  be  done  with  gentleness  and  with  tact. 

Few  of  the  men  were  trained  builders— indeed,  the  ma- 
jority were  college  bred  for  some  more  mental  profession, — 


BUILDING  AND  RECONSTRUCTION  221 

and  the  picturesque  old  roofs  had  shaky  lath  foundations 
underneath  their  charming  gables. 

"If  there  is  anything  more  discouraging  than  to  repair  an  old 
shrapnel-ruined  slate  roof  I  don't  know  it;  your  ladder  in  the 
first  place,  although  the  roofs  have  a  very  steep  pitch,  seems  to 
break  as  many  slates  as  it  touches,  and  as  soon  as  you  begin  on  a 
hole  it  opens  up  in  a  tremendously  impressive  way.  Then  it  is 
very  slow  work  to  slip  slates  under  others  and  make  them  tight, 
for  the  sheathing  is  stuck  full  of  rusty  old  nails  that  have  held  up 
slate  before,  and  one's  fingers  suffer.  But  there  is  a  great  sat- 
isfaction in  making  somebody  comfortable  for  the  winter,  and 
I  hope  I  can  do  a  decent  job  for  this  poor  old  lady.  She  has 
two  sons  and  a  grandson  fighting  and  lives  by  herself,  and  is  a 
most  bustling  and  stirring  person.  .  .  .  Like  everyone  else,  she 
has  a  bomb-proof  shelter  constructed  in  her  front  yard,  and 
very  little  else  but  her  cat,  her  goat,  and  the  ruins  of  a  fine 
bam. 

*^  .  .  I  hope  to  make  a  water-tight  roof,  but  the  cold,  the  rain 
and  the  early  darkness  all  combine  to  make  it  a  very  mean  job. 

"Moreover,  of  course,  we  have  to  do  a  good  many  menial  jobs 
to  keep  the  place  going.  Yesterday,  for  instance,  E.  Z.  and  I 
put  in  the  whole  day  sawing  and  chopping  wood  to  cook  by.  .  .  . 
We  take  it  in  turns  to  get  breakfast,  getting  up  at  5  or  5:30 
and  making  porridge,  tea  and  coffee,  which  is  served  at  seven 
o'clock." 

As  for  food : 

"We  generally  have  a  good,  generous  soup,  and  vegetables — 
l)otatoes,  peas,  macaroni,  tomatoes, — and  a  filling  pudding.  Some- 
times we  can  get  meat. 

"Yesterday  I  went  out  to  glaze  some  windows  for  our  cook's 
house.  All  the  glass  was  gone  and  she  had  taken  down  the 
frames.  All  French  windows  are  casement,  opening  inward.  She 
had  patched  up  a  window  with  German  wire  glass  and  a  small 
single  sash,  probably  German.     Well,  of  course,  the  first  thing 


222  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

I  did  was  to  put  in  the  glass,  then  I  tore  dowTi  her  patchwork 
and  hung  the  sash,  but  alas,  they  wouldn't  shut — they  had  been 
in  the  weather  too  long  and  had  warped  so  they  interfered  with 
each  other.  It  was  too  much  like  cabinet  work  for  me,  and  I 
had  to  call  for  help,  and  we  were  two  hours  planing  and  fitting 
to  get  them  shut.  Most  of  the  time  we  were  surrounded  by 
children,  counting  in  English,  German  and  French,  and  discussing 
the  coming  Christmas  party.  .  .  .  To-day  I  went  back  and  put 
up  the  cook's  patchwork  window  in  another  room.  .  .  .  After 
that  I  spent  the  rest  of  the  day  glazing  the  sash  in  a  soldier's 
house  which  is  at  present  entirely  deserted,  but  whenever  he  gets 
leave  he  comes  home  to  patch  it  up  as  he  wants  his  wife  to  live 
in  it  as  soon  as  possible.  It  is  not  badly  damaged,  but  needs 
a  good  deal  of  plastering  and  glazing.  Glazing  is  rather  ticklish 
work,  as  the  glass  furnished  by  the  government  is  very  thin  and 
brittle  and  is  not  cut  to  exact  measure  but  generally  is  just 
enough  too  large  to  make  it  necessary  to  trim  the  wood  as  you 
can  hardly  cut  a  thin  strip  off  the  glass.  Then  you  dull  your 
chisel  on  concealed  nails.  Also  the  old  frames  are  warped  and 
out  of  line,  and  hard  to  fit.  This  soldier's  house  is  a  poor  man's 
house,  the  walls  being  one  layer  of  brick  plastered  on  the  outside 
with  mud  and  straw,  with  a  thin  coat  of  plaster  over  that.  He 
is  trying  to  get  two  rooms  in  order  and  let  the  rest  go  for  the 
present,  and  I  was  able  to  get  all  the  panes  of  glass  in  but  one 
to-day." 

Opportunities  for  Relief  v^ork  often  presented  themselves 
to  the  builders,  getting  into  close  touch  as  they  did  with  the 
lives  of  the  people  among  whom  they  worked. 

"I  find  our  washerwoman  is  absolutely  destitute.  She  owns  a 
stove,  and  is  living  in  one  room  with  two  little  girls.  The  room 
is  about  ten  by  fifteen.  They  have  only  the  stove,  one  bed,  and 
the  clothes  they  stand  in.  The  furniture  belonged  to  a  woman 
who  is  now  a  prisoner  in  Germany.  A  small  pension  as  a  soldier's 
widow  is  the  main  source  of  support.  The  mother  is  a  hard- 
working, honest  woman.     I  have  undertaken  to  provide  her  with 


BUILDING  AND  RECONSTRUCTION  223 

an  outfit  after  talking  her  case  over  with  the  Maire,  and  last 
night  after  she  had  washed  the  dishes  I  had  her  in  my  room, 
and  with  the  help  of  a  dictionary  we  drew  up  a  list  of  what 
she  ought  to  have.  You  should  have  seen  the  delight  of  the 
little  girl  at  the  thought  of  having  a  separate  bed.  The  three  of 
them  are  sleeping  in  one  bed  now.  .  .  .  The  mother  is  very 
hopeful  about  the  future,  and  hopes  to  get  a  decent  house  to 
live  m.  At  present,  as  she  owns  no  house  or  land,  we  can't 
do  anything  for  her  in  the  way  of  more  commodious  shelter." 

The  co-operation  and  friendliness  shown  in  this  account 
and  many  others  as  existing  between  the  local  Maire 
(Mayor)  and  the  Friend  workers  is  a  very  happy  feature  of 
the  work.     As  one  boy  writes : 

"The  more  I  see  of  the  Maire  the  more  I  am  inclined  to  trust 
him  and  rely  on  his  advice.  He  doesn't  seem  to  play  any  fav- 
orites, and  he  rejoices  with  the  people  that  we  help,  although 
he  does  want  us  to  do  some  work  for  him.  His  house  is  in 
good  condition,  but  his  bam  wants  repairing;  we  of  course 
have  to  devote  ourselves  to  houses  until  we  get  roofs  tight 
and  everj^  one  in  the  Commune  at  least  in  a  diy  and  fairly 
tight  house." 

The  severe  winter  of  1917  was  hard  on  the  building  work. 
The  sections  of  the  maisons  demoniables  became  warped  by 
the  cold  before  they  could  be  erected,  ice  and  snow  had  to 
be  cleared  away  from  the  scene  of  labor  in  the  discouraging 
gray  morning  before  work  could  start ;  we  read  of  the  wash- 
house  tioor  being  covered  with  ice  to  greet  early  bathers, 
and  icicles  forming  on  unwary  moustaches  that  poked  out 
from  sleeping-bags.  One  odd  job  that  turned  up  was  a 
result  of  the  cold  weather: 

"Last  week  was  about  as  cold  as  any  weather  we  have  had  in 
Philadelphia.     It  snowed   about  a  foot  on  the  16th,  and  began 


224  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

to  freeze  hard,  and  it  didn't  melt  a  bit  until  last  night.  .  .  . 
We  were  asked  to  make  a  snow-plow  by  the  Maire,  and  after 
strenuous  work  a  very  good  plow  was  made  and  put  into  operation. 
The  Maire  sent  three  horses  harnessed  tandem  and  two  men  to 
drive  them,  and  followed  the  plow  all  round  the  village  on  foot." 

Charming  ''fathers  of  the  village"  these  French  Maires. 

Stories  of  the  building  work  in  the  villages  could  be  mul- 
tiplied, but  they  all  bear  on  much  the  same  details  as  have 
been  already  indicated.  Hard  work,  becoming  more  skilled 
as  time  went  on,  warm  friendship,  ripening  with  the  days, 
help  and  comradeship  in  regions  where  these  had  become 
rare. 

"The  gay  way,"  says  one,  "in  which  any  one  refers  to  any 
difficulty  or  privation  they  ask  you  to  share  with  them — 'Ca  ne 
fait  rien,  c'est  la  guerre,'  is  very  misleading.  They  don't  con- 
sider the  war  gaily  or  joyously,  it  is  a  very  serious  and  terrible 
state  of  affairs  and  cannot  end  too  quickly  and  every  one  will 
say  so,  although  no  one  has  any  formula  for  putting  an  end  to  it. 
Mme.  Varley,  whose  house  I  had  just  finished,  loaded  my  pockets 
up  with  apples  that  came  from  Normandy  last  summer,  and  very 
good  they  were,  and  then  when  I  was  leaving  she  tried  to  force 
a  five  franc  note  on  me,  and  I  had  a  terrible  time  persuading  her 
that  I  couldn't  take  it.  I  had  to  put  it  on  the  backs  of  her 
hands  and  let  it  fall  to  the  floor.  My  French  is  inadequate  for 
such  a  situation,  but  we  parted  good  friends  all  the  same." 

Those  who  were  undertaking  the  perhaps  less  physically 
exacting  but  more  monotonous  work  of  manufacture  at  the 
Dole  and  Ornans  centers,  did  not  neglect  their  opportuni- 
ties to  get  into  friendly  touch  with  the  people  among  whom 
they  lived.  Many  of  them  took  French  lessons  in  different 
families,  and  so  obtained  entrance  into  the  family  circle  and 
were  presently  able  to  share  its  pleasures  and  difficulties. 


BUILDING  AND  RECONSTRUCTION         225 

And  Christmas  parties  for  the  children  proved  a  wonderful 
opener  of  hearts,  here  as  elsewhere. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  illuminating  to  quote  "the  star 
poem  of  the  star  grouch"  as  a  summary  of  the  difficulties 
with  which  the  workers  had  to  contend,  the  view  of  the 
men  themselves  as  to  what  made  their  work  worth  while, 
the  view  of  a  French  newspaper  writer  on  the  same  sub- 
ject, and  the  view  of  the  American  Red  Cross. 

THE  STAR  GROUCH  REMARKS 
The  stopped-up   drain; 

The  smoky  flue; 
The  inside  pain; 

Too  much  to  do. 

The  icy  walk; 

The  early  night; 
The  foreign  talk; 

The  lack  of  light. 

The  air  that's  damp ; 

The  homely  daughter; 
0  cold  hard  world : 

0  cold  hard  water. 

If  that  is  not  graphic  and  cheerful  grumbling,  what  is? 
As  to  what  they  thought  made  the  work  worth  while : 

"You  know,  I  think  it  would  have  been  worth  while  for  us  to 
be  there  if  we  had  never  hung  a  single  slate  or  mended  one 
smashed  wall.  At  first  the  people  were  suspicious  of  us;  we 
were  foreigners,  and  they  didn't  like  us;  then  they  were  indif- 
ferent; but  now  we're  real  friends.  .  .  . 

"I  think  the  thing  that  brings  the  little  catch  to  the  throat 
most  often  is  to  be  greeted  with  loving  smiles  and  handclasps 


226  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

in  villages  in  which  one  would  imagine  inhabitants  could  never 
smile  again." 

Carleton  MacDowell,  one  of  our  American  ''boys/'  has 
well  summed  up  the  spirit  of  this  work : 

*'We  went  to  mend  houses;  but  the  reason  we  wanted  to  mend 
houses  was  that  it  would  give  us  a  chance  to  try  to  mend  hearts. 
Much  of  our  work  on  the  houses  has  been  lost;  but  I  do  not 
believe  that  any  amount  of  cannonading  will  break  down  what- 
ever influence  we  had  on  these  people's  hearts.  We  cannot  say 
iiow  much  cheerfulness,  hope  and  love  we  brought  them — surely 
some  reached  them.  I  believe  it  possible  that  even  now,  when 
their  troubles  are  keener  than  ever,  their  experience  with  us  boys 
may  somehow  be  giving  them  a  little  mental  comfort.  However 
that  may  be,  the  whole  perplexing  question  of  our  coming  will 
remain  in  the  back  of  their  minds.  From  time  to  time  it  will 
claim  attention  until  finally  a  light  dawns,  until  they  finally  realize 
why  we  came — why  we  crossed  the  ocean  voluntarily,  why  ^-e 
worked  without  pay,  why  in  order  to  do  this  we  were  willing  to 
leave  our  homes  and  our  professions  and  take  up  jobs  we  never 
tried  before.  And  when  this  answer  once  comes  to  them  it  will 
never  be  forgotten;  in  the  intimate  traditions  of  these  families  will 
be  handed  down  the  account  of  the  little  group  of  men  who  worked 
for  strangers  because  of  their  belief  in  the  Great  Brotherhood." 


SCALT     or    KILOMCTGES 

r  ■  ■  I.  .  r        — ^ 


THE  VERDUN  AREA 

r 


SCALE    at   Mruts 
%-^ — f     T     T — f     f     4 — t— j; — ^ 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  VERDUN   PROJECT 

Never  before  in  the  long  military  history  of  the  human 
race  has  there  been  such  fighting  as  that  which  took  place 
on  the  hills  and  in  the  valleys  around  Verdun.  It  seems 
inconceivable  that  men  of  flesh  and  blood  could  endure  such 
deeds  and  experiences  as  those  which  marked  this  amazing 
campaign.  One  who  has  been  over  Hill  304  and  ''Dead 
Man 's  Hill ' '  and  has  seen  the  havoc  wrought  there  wonders 
whether  fear  of  death  in  human  breasts  is  really  any  longer 
a  fact.  In  any  case  an  unparalleled  slaughter  of  men  and 
an  equally  unparalleled  maiming  of  bodies  occurred  here, 
and  in  the  fearful  process  the  trees  and  even  the  soil  of  the 
land  were  shot  and  torn  into  hopeless  ruin.  The  northern 
portion  of  the  Argonne  Forest  suffered  in  similar  fashion, 
while  the  strip  of  country  on  both  sides  of  the  main  line  of 
trenches  running  north  of  Verdun  through  the  forest  was 
made  a  desolate  waste,  the  trees  being  shot  often  into  frayed 
wood  fiber.  This  region,  with  the  less  destroyed  sections  to 
the  south  of  the  trench  line,  our  mission  was  officially  asked 
to  ''reconstruct." 

The  workers  of  our  mission  in  the  Mame  had  pushed 
north  their  reconstruction  "invasion"  wherever  there  was 
an  opening  for  them  and  had  done  a  large  amount  of  work 
even  as  far  up  toward  the  line  as  Jubecourt  and  Auzeville. 
Dr.  Earp  and  Dr.  Hinde  had  been  pioneers  in  this  region 
of  desolation.  This  service  in  the  villages  near  Verdun  had 
deeply  impressed  the  Sous-Prefet  of  the  district  as  well  as 

227 


228  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

the  peasants.  He  knew  that  it  would  be  important  to  have 
workers  ready  as  soon  as  the  region  should  be  cleared  of  the 
forces  of  destruction  and,  with  this  in  mind,  he  made  a  re- 
markable proposal  to  the  mission  as  early  as  December,  1917. 
It  was  a  call  to  Friends  to  take  the  sole  charge  of  reconstruc- 
tion and  relief  work  in  the  district  lying  between  Verdun 
and  Clermont-en-Argonne.  The  boundaries  were  eventu- 
ally greatly  extended,  as  we  shall  see. 

In  his  letter  to  the  committee  the  Sous-Prefet  says : 

"With  the  financial  assistance  of  the  government,  the  society 
might  establish  at  the  base  of  this  zone  two  receiving  centers, 
say,  at  La  Grange  Lecomte,  near  Auzeville,  and  at  Glorieux,  in 
the  suburbs  of  Verdun.  These  would  include  accommodation 
for  members  of  the  society,  a  hospital-infirmary,  a  canteen,  dor- 
mitories, a  nursery-school,  and  an  office.  The  canteen  would  be 
arranged  to  feed  the  refugees  on  their  return,  materials  being 
supplied  by  the  government;  and  the  dormitories  would  offer 
accommodations  to  such  people  as  have  no  other  shelter.  The 
nursery-school,  established  for  the  benefit  of  the  children  belong- 
ing to  the  families  so  assisted,  would  be  carried  on  by  one  or  more 
members  of  the  Public  Education  Staff.  The  refugees  thus  sup- 
ported in  a  receiving  center  could  be  employed,  partly  for  wages, 
and  partly  as  a  quid  pro  quo,  as  helpers  in  the  necessary  work 
of  the  center,  or  in  work  on  the  land  adjoining. 

BACK   TO   THEIR   HOMES 

"The  society  having  established  these  centers  and  opened  them 
in  readiness  for  the  return,  would  afterwards  organize  visits 
from  the  heads  of  families  to  the  places  with  which  they  were 
concerned.  This  would  be  of  special  importance  from  the  point 
of  view  of  morale,  inasmuch  as  individuals  would  not  be  alone 
when  they  first  set  foot  again  on  their  former  property.  So  ex- 
tensive is  the  devastation  that  they  might  otherwise  be  tempted 
to  retrace  their  steps  to  exile  in  utter  discouragement. 


THE  VERDUN  PROJECT  229 

"The  society  would  thus  help  the  people  to  make  decisions, 
would  inspire  them  with  a  spirit  of  resolution,  and  create  as 
between  its  own  workers  and  the  refugee  families  a  sort  of 
association  in  view  of  the  great  undertaking  before  them.  Inves- 
tigation should  be  made  both  as  to  the  intentions  of  the  families 
themselves,  and  the  help  available  for  them  in  the  way  of  repairs 
to  damaged  property',  temporarj'  houses,  equipment,  implements 
and  furniture.  The  chief  aim  in  view  should  be  that  the  family, 
in  returning  to  their  property,  should  not  depend  upon  the  help 
of  the  government  for  more  than  a  limited  time.  There  must  be 
no  such  thing  as  centers  of  misery. 

INVESTIGATIONS  REQUIRED 

"As  this  is  an  agricultural  country,  the  state  of  the  ground 
will  need  to  be  taken  into  account.  If  tillage  is  impossible  for 
years  to  come,  in  view  of  the  presence  of  unexploded  bombs  and 
the  general  uptuniing  of  the  soil,  the  cultivation  of  sheep,  goats 
or  pigs  on  the  waste  lands  might  be  suggested  as  an  alternative. 
Inquiry  should  also  be  made  as  to  the  possibility  of  starting 
centers  of  home  industry,  or  introducing  toy  and  lace  making, 
basket-weaving,  embroidery,  or  leather  work.  The  methods  of 
industry  anterior  to  the  war  will  not  be  able  to  be  resumed, 
hand-work  and  material  being  absent.  It  will  be  necessary  to 
group  the  inhabitants  of  the  same  place,  to  coordinate  their 
activity,  and  to  lead  them  on  unconsciously  to  the  idea  of  coopera- 
tion, starting  at  first  with  cooperative  supply  in  order  to  get  rid 
of  the  middle-man.  The  people  will  get  hold  of  the  idea  of  the 
benefit  of  such  a  method,  and  will  be  led  on  towards  cooperative 
production. 

THE    RESUMPTION    OF    INDUSTRY 

"But  the  task  of  the  society  cannot  end  there.  It  will  have 
got  over  the  first  two  stages  in  the  work  of  the  return,  having 
welcomed  the  family  back  to  the  devastated  region,  watched  over 
it  with  solicitude,  guided  and  encouraged  it.  Thanks  to  this  per- 
suasion,  ruined  buildings  will   be  reconstructed   and   lite  begun 


230  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

again  among-  the  rnins.  Who  then  should  be  better  able  than 
the  society  to  take  the  third  step — that  of  reconstruction  itself 
and  the  resumption  of  productive  labor?  With  this  object  in 
view  the  receiving  centers  should  become  productive  centers.  A 
new  form  of  collaboration  should  come  into  force  between  the 
society  and  the  government,  the  former  undertaking  to  start  in- 
dustries in  the  receiving  centers  and  workshops  in  the  vicinity, 
and  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  railways." 

The  Sous-Prefet  proposed  that  the  temporary  houses  of 
the  district  should  be  built  of  ' '  concrete, ' '  composed  of  the 
pulverized  ruins  of  the  former  houses  mixed  with  cement 
or  slag.  This  plan  of  construction  fell  through  when  the 
time  came  to  build  and  the  villages  were  finally  supplied 
with  our  usual  demountables.  This  call  came  just  before 
New  Year  and  before  any  steps  could  be  taken  to  fulfil 
it,  the  great  spring  ''drive"  of  1918  upset  all  plans  and 
delayed  any  thought  of  rebuilding  the  sections  near  the 
trench  lines.  The  plan,  however,  never  died  out  of  mind. 
It  was  always  a  goal  toward  which  the  mission  worked, 
and  a  year  from  the  time  when  it  was  first  made,  it  was 
on  the  point  of  becoming  operative. 

In  May  of  1918,  when  the  dark  had  not  begun  to  be 
broken  with  streamers  of  light,  a  member  of  the  mission 
wrote:  ''The  Verdun  work  makes  a  deep  appeal  to  all  of 
us.  We  have  been  invited  to  undertake  not  a  piece  of  mere 
relief  work,  but  the  reconstruction  of  the  social  fabric  of 
many  villages.  There  will  be  a  wide  scope  for  building, 
relief,  agriculture  and  medical  work,  while  the  organiza- 
tion of  cooperative  concerns,  agricultural  and  industrial,  in 
conjunction  with  the  peasants,  the  workers  and  the  French 
authorities,  will  open  up  a  new  sphere  of  activity  to  our 
workers.  Our  future  can  thus  be  concentrated.  .  .  .  May 
we  not  hope,  too,  that  the  friendship  and  sympathy  built  up 


THE  VERDUN  PROJECT  231 

between  our  men  and  women — British  and  American — and 
the  French  people  with  whom  they  work  will  live  on  after 
the  war  is  over,  and  form  a  living  bond  of  understanding 
and  fellowship  between  the  three  peoples." 

The  summer  with  its  great  events  came  and  went  and 
the  autumn  brought  the  armistice  with  something  like  the 
dawn.  At  once  the  Verdun  project  took  on  a  fresh  prom- 
ise. The  November  executive  meeting  in  Paris  was  largely 
occupied  with  a  consideration  of  plans  for  the  'invasion" 
of  the  northern  area.  The  ''concrete"  houses  were  still 
a  vital  subject  and  plans  were  developing  for  the  forma- 
tion of  cooperative  stores  to  save  the  peasants  from  the 
"gold  rushes"  of  selfish  profiteers.  T.  Edmund  Harvey, 
with  his  usual  insight  said:  ''To  spread  the  spirit  of 
cooperation  and  leave  behind  us  cooperative  institutions 
that  will  be  more  than  ephemeral,  will  be  time  well  spent." 

In  early  January  the  work  in  the  "Verdun  area"  was 
vigorously  begun  and  the  ten  thousand  refugees  who  were 
eager  to  return  were  looking  to  us  in  hope  that  home  was 
once  more  to  be  real  for  them.  The  large  farm  with  its 
extensive  buildings  which  constituted  the  estate  known  as 
Grange-le-Compte  was  taken  as  headquarters  of  the  mission 
and  fitted  up  to  house  a  large  working  force.  Barracks 
had  been  left  there  by  the  American  army  which  con- 
tributed materially  to  our  welfare.  It  was  conveniently 
located  in  reference  to  the  area  of  work  and  from  this  center 
after  ^Nlarch  of  1919,  the  mission  was  managed  and  the  lines 
of  activity  radiated  out  West,  North  and  East,  like  the 
ribs  of  a  fan.  All  the  old  departments  except  that  of 
manufacturing  were  put  into  intensive  operation,  while  a 
new  feature,  that  of  cooperative  stores  and  the  sale  of 
the  "Dumps"  to  be  spoken  of  later,  was  introduced. 
These  cooperative  stores,  managed  by  the  department  of 


232  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

purchase  and  sales,  did  an  immense  business.  During  the 
six  months  from  June  to  December  the  sales  of  farm  sup- 
plies alone  amounted  to  560,786  francs  and  contained  such 
items  as  the  following:  18,000  chickens,  6,000  rabbits 
(which  came  too  fast  to  be  counted  accurately),  460  goats, 
698  sheep,  229  pigs,  87  cattle,  41  horses,  and  626  bee 
colonies,  with  360  more  to  be  delivered. 

The  total  sales  in  the  cooperative  stores  for  the  seven 
months  ending  in  July,  1919,  amounted  to  more  than 
800,000  francs. 

Even  before  Grange  was  ready  with  its  central  offices, 
little  equipes  of  workers  had  been  established  in  the  ruined 
villages  of  the  area.  A  center  of  relief  was  opened  by  a 
group  of  trained  women  workers  at  Ste.  Menehould,  a  center 
of  agriculture  was  started  at  Dombasle-en-Argonne,  a  unit 
of  men  had  begun  to  repair  the  broken  houses  at  Le  Neu- 
four  and  an  equipe  of  house  builders,  all  five  of  them  Hav- 
erford  graduates,  was  installed  in  a  shattered  building  at 
Neuilly.  Jubecourt  which  was  a  tiny  bit  below  the  south- 
em  edge  of  the  new  area  was  growing  in  considerable 
strength  as  a  center  of  agriculture,  repair  of  farm  im- 
plements and  breeding  place  for  rabbits.  This  whole  region 
belongs  in  the  arrondissement  of  the  Meuse,  but  I  shall  call 
it  after  the  popular  name  associated  with  our  original 
plan,  ''the  Verdun  area,"  much  of  it  lies  in  the  ''Canton 
of  Argonne"  which  is  another  familiar  name  for  a  section 
of  this  field.  During  the  spring  of  1919  the  region  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  American  army  and  American  soldiers 
were  quartered  in  many  of  the  villages.  Large  numbers 
of  German  prisoners  were  also  assigned  to  this  section  and 
were  engaged  primarily  in  rebuilding  the  roads.  The 
American  army  had  built  a  new  railroad  through  the 
Argonne  Forest  and  across  the   "area"  to  Verdun.     At 


THE  VERDUN  PROJECT  233 

five  depots  there  were  piled  enormous  "dumps"  of  material 
and  supplies.  This  material  covered  many  acres  at  each 
''dump"  and  consisted  of  lumber,  bar-iron  and  steel,  farm 
and  road  implements  of  every  sort,  miles  upon  miles  of 
barbed  wire  and  an  almost  indescribable  melange  of  all  ma- 
terial which  might  be  useful  in  a  modem  war.  J.  Henry 
Scattergood  who  had  a  great  part  in  working  out  the  early 
plans  for  the  joint  mission  had  gone  over  again  to  France 
with  me  in  December  of  1918  and  he  remained  after  my  re- 
turn. He  had  a  feeling  that  these  ''dumps"  might  be  very 
useful  in  our  work  and  might  be  got  from  the  army  on  rea- 
sonable terms.  While  Charles  J.  Rhoads  and  J.  Henry  Scat- 
tergood and  I  were  making  a  tour  of  the  "area"  in  January 
we  visited  the  head  military  official  of  the  district,  situated 
at  Dombasle,  and  asked  him  to  consider  the  possibility  of 
letting  us  have  the  "dumps"  for  our  French  work  of  relief. 
He  was  \erj  favorable  to  the  idea  and  at  once  opened  com- 
munication with  the  officers  who  had  charge  of  their  dis- 
posal. During  the  following  weeks  J.  Henry  Scattergood 
devoted  much  of  his  time  to  this  project,  ably  assisted  in 
the  undertaking  by  Charles  Rhoads  and  others.  There 
were  many  hitches  and  delays,  much  cabling,  telegraphing, 
writing,  and  personal  visiting,  but  finally  an  offer  was  made 
by  the  officials  who  had  the  matter  in  hand  and  after  serious 
consideration  it  was  accepted.  We  thus  came  into  pos- 
session of  a  vast  amount  of  reconstruction  material, 
adapted  for  the  needs  of  the  work.  There  was,  however,  at 
the  same  time  a  great  deal  more  which  we  could  not  use 
ourselves.  With  rare  ability  and  quick  action  the  capable 
men  who  had  arranged  the  purchase  proceeded  to  dispose 
of  the  extensive  surplus.  The  railroads  of  the  section 
agreed  to  carry  it  for  us  free  of  freight  charges  and  the 
department  of  the  French  Government  in  charge  of  German 


234  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

prisoners  let  us  have  groups  of  them  to  sort  and  load  the 
dump  material.  Sales,  by  agreement,  could  be  made  only 
within  an  area  of  fifty  kilometers,  but  as  it  was  offered  at 
very  low  values,  it  sold  rapidly,  and  was  well  disposed  of. 
We  had  already  established  a  large  capital  fund  to  be  used 
for  financing  the  system  of  cooperative  stores  already  re- 
ferred to.  This  capital  fund  had  been  furnished  by  large 
contributions  from  the  London  and  Philadelphia  offices. 
Into  this  fund  the  money  from  the  sale  of  the  '  ^  dumps ' '  was 
put  to  be  used  over  again  in  purchases  for  the  cooperative 
business,  and  all  that  has  accrued  in  this  way  will  finally 
be  put  into  permanent  improvements  for  the  benefit  of  the 
French  people  in  the  war  zones.  This  sale  of  the  ''dumps'^ 
and  the  system  of  cooperative  stores  proved  to  be  one  of 
the  greatest  of  all  our  forms  of  assistance.  It  gave  the  re- 
turning refugees  an  opportunity  to  furnish  their  houses 
and  to  stock  their  farms  at  the  lowest  possible  cost.  It 
w^s  supposed  that  the  great  stock  of  barbed  wire  in  the 
*' dumps"  would  be  like  "coals  to  Newcastle"  since  the 
whole  world  of  the  war-zone  was  one  great  entanglement 
of  barbed  wire.  But  it  was  quickly  discovered  that  this 
old  rusty  wire  was  useless.  It  could  not  be  taken  down 
from  the  entanglements  and  put  up  again  where  it  was 
wanted  without  a  great  waste  of  time,  nor  could  it  be  cut 
up  and  melted  at  advantage.  In  fact  it  was  worse  than 
worthless.  The  only  thing  to  be  done  with  it  was  to  cut 
it  up  and  bury  it  where  the  process  of  rust  would  some  day 
eat  it  up.  The  result  was  that  our  barbed  wire  sold  almost 
as  well  as  though  the  armies  had  not  left  so  much  of  it 
strung  over  the  fields. 

The  work  with  the  German  prisoners  was  a  strange  and 
interesting  experience,  both  for  our  workers  and  for  the 
prisoners  themselves.     They  worked  for  us  on  their  honor 


THE  VERDUN  PROJECT  235 

and  so  without  guard.  We  agreed  that  if  ever  one  of  them 
escaped  we  would  immediately  return  the  entire  group  to 
the  French  authorities  and  cease  to  use  them  further.  The 
prisoners  were  told  this  fact  that  if  any  one  took  advan- 
tage of  the  larger  freedom  which  we  gave  them  the  work 
with  us  would  come  to  an  end.  They  promised  to  ''play 
fair"  and  to  keep  the  terms,  and  they  usually  kept  their 
word.  We  fed  them  and  gave  them  good  food.  So  much 
did  they  appreciate  the  dinners  they  got  that  they  preferred 
to  work  on  holidays  when  they  might  have  rested,  since 
if  they  worked  they  knew  they  would  get  a  good  dinner. 
They  became  much  attached  to  the  members  of  the  mission 
with  whom  they  worked  and  the  whole  effect  of  the  arrange- 
ment was  excellent.  As  the  mission  did  not  feel  that  it 
was  quite  right  to  use  without  pay  the  labor  of  men  who 
were  not  free  to  volunteer  but  were  held  against  their  will 
it  was  decided  to  seek  out  in  Germany  the  families  of  all  the 
prisoners  who  had  worked  for  us  and  to  make  these  families 
a  present  large  enough  to  cover  our  estimate  of  the  value  of 
the  labor  which  we  received,  which  has  been  done. 

In  another  way  we  were  materially  assisted  in  our  later 
work  by  the  interest  and  kindness  of  army  officers.  It 
had  always  been  difficult  to  get  a  sufficient  supply  of  motor 
cars  and  trucks  for  our  service.  In  the  spring  of  1919  the 
officers  in  charge  of  the  liquidation  of  army  supplies  in 
France  gave  us  a  free  loan  of  all  the  cars  and  trucks  we 
needed  to  finish  up  our  work.  There  were  nearly  forty  cars 
of  various  types  in  the  loan.  We  were  thus  supplied  with 
them  free  of  all  cost  so  long  as  we  needed  them  for  the 
mission.  This  generous  assistance  at  once  raised  the  effi- 
ciency of  all  our  undertakings  and  enabled  us  to  widen  the 
sphere  of  activity. 

There  were  some  forty  villages  in  the  area  originally  as- 


236  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

signed  to  us  but  the  size  of  the  area  continually  expanded 
as  we  worked.  As  soon  as  a  village  near  the  border  of  the 
area  was  ''reconstructed"  the  Maire  of  the  adjoining  vil- 
lage across  the  border  was  pretty  sure  to  urge  the  heads 
of  the  mission  to  take  charge  of  his  village  and  then  the 
next  one  beyond  would  come.  In  this  way  the  work  ex- 
tended far  beyond  our  early  expectation  of  its  limits.  It 
moved  steadily  north  and  northwest.  In  fact  it  reached 
out  beyond  the  Meuse  and  went  over  into  the  department  of 
Ardennes.  Grand  Pre  and  Chatel-Chehery  and  towns  still 
farther  north  had  units  of  the  mission  restoring  their  ter- 
rible wastes  and  desolations.  Varennes,  where  Louis  XVI 
and  Marie-Antoinette  were  captured  on  their  flight  from  the 
French  Revolution,  a  town  full  also  of  memories  for  Ameri- 
can soldiers,  was  one  of  our  star  centers.  Montfaucon, 
headquarters  of  the  German  Crown  Prince  during  the  Ver- 
dun "drive,"  a  town  smashed  to  fragments  in  the  later 
stages  of  the  war,  was  another  center  of  Quaker  activity. 
Even  Esnes,  so  badly  destroyed  that  the  signs  standing 
among  its  ruins  bore  the  words:  "This  used  to  be  Esnes," 
was  helped  back  into  life  again.  Boureuilles,  hardly  less 
spoiled  than  the  two  towns  last  named,  and  situated  close  to 
Vauquois,  which  was  at  least  twice  mined  and  blown  actu- 
ally out  of  existence,  had  its  band  of  workers.  Sainte  Mene- 
hould,  which  the  American  soldiers  could  never  learn  to 
pronounce,  was  a  relief  center  both  for  the  town  and  the 
surrounding  district.  Les  Islettes,  a  little  island  of  culti- 
vation in  the  heart  of  the  Argonne  Forest,  had  its  equipe 
of  Quaker  workers.  Seventy  houses  were  built  at  Neuilly 
and  the  new  town  was  officially  named  the  ''Cite  des  Amis/^ 
Eighty  houses  were  built  at  Montfaucon  amid  the  ruins  of 
this  ancient  hill  town. 

A  recent  report  from  Wilmer  J.  Young  shows  conclu- 


The  Cite  des  Amis  (Neuvilly) 


THE  VERDUN  PROJECT  237 

sively  how  much  better  off  the  villages  of  our  "area"  are 
than  are  the  other  sections  of  the  devastated  zones.  He 
says : 

"On  a  trip  to  the  Somme  not  long  ago,  any  idea  that  we  had 
not  been  able  to  help  our  region  was  absolutely  dispelled.  On 
all  of  this  trip  of  about  150  miles  of  the  battle  front,  we  saw 
no  place  at  all  where  a  small  village  like  Neuilly  had  been  built. 
A  \dllage  of  about  300  or  400  inhabitants  before  the  war  would 
have  five  or  six  families  back  instead  of  70  or  80  as  in  our  villages. 
Two  cities  of  probably  20,000  or  30,000  inhabitants,  which  had 
been  razed  to  the  ground,  and  which  we  passed  through,  had 
possibly  100  or  150  houses  each.  In  one  of  these  cases  the  houses 
had  been  built  by  a  big  company,  evidently  to  house  its  own 
workmen.  There  is  no  doubt  that  in  the  districts  where  we  have 
done  building,  we  have  advanced  the  return  of  the  French  refu- 
gees en  masse  by  at  least  one  year." 

One  of  the  most  telling  forms  of  help  which  the  mission 
supplied  consisted  of  building  and  managing  canteens  and 
hostels  for  the  refugees  who  returned  to  their  ruined  vil- 
lages. They  were  thus  provided  with  a  place  to  eat  and 
sleep  while  they  were  getting  life  started  again  in  homes 
which  were  not  ready  for  their  inmates.  The  cooperative 
stores  sold  them  glass  to  repair  their  windows  in  cases 
where  the  old  houses  were  not  beyond  recovery,  and  here, 
too,  in  these  stores,  they  could  get  cement,  paint  and  white- 
wash for  the  inside  walls.  Wall  paper  also  could  be  had 
and  curtains  for  those  who  wanted  to  have  the  house  look 
as  it  used  to  do.  Nails — thanks  to  the  ''dumps" — we  had 
in  plenty  and  these  were  indispensable  to  all  returning 
exiles. 

Schools  had  not  existed  in  these  regions  since  the  war 
first  broke  over  their  heads.  The  mission  assisted  the  re- 
turned people  in  starting  a  school  in  every  village  as  soon 


238  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

as  the  children  got  back  to  use  it,  and  these  schools  were 
furnished  with  necessary  school-supplies  out  of  the  coopera- 
tive stores.  Over  ninet}^  schools  thus  received  supplies  of 
pens,  paper,  crayons  and  other  needed  material.  All  school 
libraries  had  been  annihilated.  We  proceeded  to  put  a 
small  library  in  every  school  in  our  area.  Besides  this  an 
excellent  library  of  one  thousand  volumes  was  bought  for 
Clermont,  to  be  used  both  in  the  town  and  throughout  the 
canton.  This  splendid  work  was  under  the  oversight  of 
Edith  Moon. 

The  soil  of  this  whole  Verdun  region  was  poor  even  be- 
fore the  devastation  came  to  it.  The  trenches  and  shell 
holes  left  it  seven  times  worse  than  in  its  former  estate. 
But  it  was  ''home"  to  a  great  number  of  peasants  and  they 
loved  it  with  such  a  passion  that  no  other  land  could  take  its 
place  for  them.  One  reason  why  this  area  especially  ap- 
pealed to  our  mission  was  that  the  rich  and  easy  areas 
could  take  care  of  themselves.  Sooner  or  later  recovery 
and  reconstruction  were  sure  to  come  where  the  returns 
from  the  land  were  abundant.  But  unless  help  came 
early  nothing  could  save  the  sterner  regions  which  skirted 
the  Argonne  and  lay  in  the  storm  belt  of  trench  warfare. 
Henceforth  Verdun  and  Argonne  will  always  be  associated 
with  the  Quakers.  The  scenes  of  the  world's  greatest 
fighting  and  the  men  who  could  not  fight — with  guns  and 
bayonets — are  indissolubly  united.  In  the  summer  of 
1919  the  work  in  the  Meuse  and  the  Ardennes  reached  its 
height.  Many  forms  of  relief  slowed  down  and  came  to  an 
end  soon  after  the  armistice  was  signed.  Our  work,  how- 
ever, expanded  when  the  fighting  stopped.  The  men  who 
had  been  unable  to  do  reconstruction  before  the  war  was 
over  now  were  eager  to  do  their  part  in  the  labor  of  love  and 
those  who  had  already  been  in  the  mission  wanted  to  go 


THE  VERDUN  PROJECT  239 

on  with  their  work,  since  they  were  not  in  it  just  because 
they  had  to  be  in  it,  but  rather  because  it  was  the  best 
expression  they  knew  how  to  give  of  their  faith  and  spirit. 
After  the  middle  of  the  summer  the  work  naturally  tapered 
off.  The  people  were  back  in  their  villages,  they  had  homes 
to  live  in,  their  harvests  were  gathered,  their  communities 
established  and  life  was  in  some  sense  reorganized.  Charles 
Rhoads,  William  Biddle,  Henry  Scattergood,  Ralston 
Thomas,  Joseph  Haines,  Frederick  J.  Libby  and  many 
other  members  of  the  American  group  who  had  had  an 
important  part  in  its  direction  felt  that  they  could  return 
to  America  now  and  leave  the  work  in  other  hands. 
Frank  Shaw  was  chosen  Executive  Secretary  to  succeed 
Wilfrid  Shewell.  Wilmer  J.  Young  was  selected  to  suc- 
ceed Charles  J.  Rhoads  as  head  of  the  American  body  of 
workers.  James  Norton,  Vincent  Nicholson,  Leslie  Heath, 
Weston  Howland,  all  men  who  had  been  thoroughly  tried 
and  tested  in  the  formative  experience  of  the  work,  became 
prominent  leaders  in  the  finishing  period  of  it.  The  prob- 
lems still  remained  complex  and  difficult,  for  in  some  re- 
spects it  is  a  harder  task  to  direct  a  closing  operation  than 
to  steer  an  opening  one.  The  drive  and  enthusiasm  of  the 
forward-looking  group  are  maintained  with  great  difficulty 
when  the  winding  up  process  is  underway.  To  see  old 
workers  and  companions  withdrawing  to  go  home  works 
subtly  on  the  mind  of  those  who  stay  behind  to  finish  the 
slowly  contracting  job.  It  must  be  said,  however,  that  the 
spirit  of  the  Mission  in  France  has  remained  to  the 
end.  I  am  writing  on  the  last  day  of  1919.  The  workers 
have  been  coming  home  in  a  steady  stream  for  many  weeks, 
but  so  far  as  one  can  tell  from  conversation  and  letters 
much  of  the  old  time  fire  is  left.  According  to  the  latest 
reports,  relief  in  some  form  or  degree  has  been  given  by 


240  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Friends  to  1,666  French  villages  and  over  46,000  families 
have  been  assisted.  The  Mission  has  planted  25,000  trees, 
mostly  fruit  trees,  in  ''the  Verdun  area,"  five  trees  per 
family,  and  many  communal  trees. 

Of  the  group  still  on  the  field,  more  than  half  are  eager 
to  go,  when  their  work  in  France  is  done — and  it  will  prac- 
tically close  in  six  or  eight  weeks — to  one  of  the  new  fields 
of  labor  and  relief  which  have  already  opened  in  Serbia, 
Poland,  Vienna  and  Germany.  A  spirit  of  service,  an  in- 
ternational outlook,  a  deep  sympathy  for  all  who  suffer 
have  come  to  most  of  the  workers  in  the  French  field  and 
they  will  bear  henceforth  both  in  their  souls  and  bodies  the 
marks  of  their  years  of  devoted  labor  in  France.  A  French 
writer,  in  a  Paris  newspaper,  commenting  on  the  work  of 
the  Mission  said  not  long  ago,  * '  The  Friends  consider  that 
the  most  beautiful  form  of  intelligence  is  friendship." 
That  has  not  been  a  conscious  article  of  the  Quaker  creed, 
but  the  expression  of  friendship  has  been,  I  am  sure,  the 
deepest  aspiration  of  all  the  best  and  truest  workers  and 
into  it  as  into  all  their  constructive  activities  has  gone 
the  best  intelligence  with  which  they  were  gifted.  An 
American  army  officer  who  had  seen  the  work  and  the  work- 
ers in  many  places  wrote  home  from  Paris  with  enthusiasm : 

"Everywhere  I  go,  whether  up  to  the  front  or  down  to  the 
Baby  Show  at  Lyons,  I  always  find  the  Quakers,  and  they  are 
always  the  hardest  working,  simplest,  most  modest  crowd  in  the 
place.  They  rarely  do  the  big  spectacular  things,  so  they  are 
not  so  much  talked  about  as  they  should  be.  But  when  you  get 
down  to  the  people  on  the  ground  who  know  what's  going  on, 
you  find  everybody  from  top  to  bottom  blessing  the  Quakers." 

The  workers  themselves  have  been  extremely  modest  and 
humble,  conscious  of  mistakes  and  failures  rather  than 
exalted  by  successes.     They  would  regret  to  have  trumpets 


THE  VERDUN  PROJECT  241 

sound  their  praises.  Thoy  have  not  allowed  their  left  hand 
to  know  what  their  right  hand  was  doing.  Cures  have 
thanked  God  for  them  and  have  prayed  His  blessing  upon 
them.  Mayors  of  villages  and  towns  have  given  them  elo- 
quent addresses  of  appreciation. 

The  following  letter,  which  is  a  good  sample  of  many 
similar  expressions  of  appreciation,  is  from  the  widow  of 
]\I.  Paul  Labosse  who  had  been  president  of  the  Civil  Tri- 
bunal of  Nancy,  Mayor  of  Clermont  and  Conseiller  Geri- 
eral  of  the  Meuse.  Writing  from  Poitier  to  one  of  our 
workers,  November  28th,  1919,  after  a  visit  to  Clermont, 
she  says: 

"I  have  just  heard  that  you  may  be  leaving  Clermont  about 
March  next.  I  do  not  want  to  delay  longer  in  telling  you  of  my 
admiration  for  j'our  work.  When  I  was  at  Clermont  in  October 
last  I  received  hospitality  in  your  house,  but  did  not  like  to  dis- 
turb you  by  expressing  my  thanks.  I  regret  that  I  did  not  do  it 
and  now  I  want  to  tell  you  something  of  my  feehng  for  your 
Mission  so  rich  in  the  self-sacrifice,  the  understanding  and  dis- 
cretion of  its  members.  May  you  be  rewarded  for  the  immense 
amount  of  good  you  have  done  for  our  country,  for  after  five 
years  of  death  you  have  brought  it  life.  With  the  help  you  have 
given  hope  has  sprung  up  again,  even  amongst  those  who,  like 
myself,  felt  that  it  was  no  longer  worth  while  to  live.  [She  had 
been  to  see  the  grave  of  her  son.]  Infinn  and  half  ruined  I  have 
nevertheless  sought  a  temporary  dwelling. 

"Allow  me  to  thank  you  personally  and  particularly  for  the 
generosity  with  which  your  Mission  rebuilt  the  large  wing  of 
the  hospital  at  Clermont  previously  built  by  my  husband.  He 
loved  his  town  passionately,  the  inhabitants  would  tell  you  so, 
and  in  thanking  you  I  feel  that  I  speak  in  his  name.  Receive 
these;  thoughts  as  the  expression  of  a  mind  which  would  have 
known  how  to  understand  and  appreciate  you  even  better  than 
I  can  do. 


242  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

^'You  will  probably  only  leave  us  to  take  new  life  elsewhere. 
How  splendid  is  your  Mission,  how  rich  in  generosity  for  your 
allies.     Accept  my  kind  regards,  as  well  as  my  sincere  gratitude." 

More  touching  still  has  been  the  joy  of  little  children 
whose  innocent  faces  spoke  the  fervor  of  their  hearts.  The 
workers  have  greatly  prized  these  testimonies  but  they  have 
always  dwelt  in  their  thought  upon  the  littleness  of  the 
service  compared  to  the  trouble  and  woe  of  the  country 
they  tried  to  help.  They  rejoice  most  that  they  could  per- 
manently build  their  love  and  devotion  into  one  section  of 
the  land  that  suffered  so  much.  I  should  like  to  close  this 
chapter  with  the  words  I  spoke  to  a  large  group  of  them 
in  Paris  last  winter : 

"Ever  since  I  was  a  little  child,  the  building  of  cathe- 
drals has  made  me  marvel — the  way  those  men  translated 
their  faith  into  these  glorious  structures.  Nobody  ever 
built  a  cathedral;  you  cannot  put  your  finger  on  the  man 
who  did  it;  the  man  that  started  it  was  often  dead  before 
the  first  story  was  up.  He  dreamed  a  splendid  dream,  and 
died ;  the  cathedral  went  on.  Every  man  in  the  whole  city 
and  every  man  about  the  city  helped  build;  every  woman 
and  every  child  helped  carry  stones.  Centuries  went  by; 
styles  of  architecture  changed.  The  cathedral  went  on  and 
every  Christian  went  on  building  his  faith  into  it  like  a 
martyr's  flame  turned  to  stone,  ever  rising,  ever  aspir- 
ing, expressing  everywhere  and  always  the  highest  aspira- 
tion they  had  for  their  faith. 

*'  A  great  thing  has  come  to  us.  Though  I  cannot  be  in 
a  cathedral  without  having  every  fiber  in  me  respond  to 
the  glory  of  the  place,  yet  I  would  rather  have  part  in  this 
work  we  are  doing  than  share  in  the  building  of  a  cathe- 
dral.    This  translation  of  Christianity  is  greater  than  any 


THE  VERDUN  PROJECT  243 

cathedral-builders  ever  made.  It  has  come  to  you  to  put 
your  lives  into  this.  Two  hundred  years  from  now  they 
will  not  remember  your  names,  they  will  not  have  a  roll  on 
which  every  name  is  listed.  But  this  thing  which  you  are 
doing  will  never  cease,  for  when  you  translate  Love  into 
Life,  when  you  become  organs  of  God  for  a  piece  of  service, 
nothing  can  obliterate  it.  To-night  I  feel,  as  I  did  this 
morning  in  Notre  Dame,  an  emotion  that  throbs  through 
my  whole  being.  Thank  God  we  can  have  our  little  share 
in  this  age  in  translating  the  love  of  God  into  terms  of 
human  service  and  that  we  can  fight,  not  with  guns,  not 
with  bombs,  but  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  which  is  the 
word  of  God." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

AMERICAN    FRIENDS   SERVICE   WORK  IN   OTHER   LANDS 

The  work  of  reconstruction  and  relief  in  France  is  only 
a  part — though  it  is  a  large  part — of  the  service  of  love  to 
suffering  victims  of  v^ar  v^hich  American  Friends  have  un- 
dertaken in  the  years  1917-1919.  We  sent  a  small  group  of 
workers  to  Russia  even  before  we  had  completed  our  plans 
for  the  French  Mission.  These  workers  joined  the  English 
Friends  who  had  already  for  some  time  been  engaged  in 
extensive  work  of  relief  among  the  hosts  of  refugees  who 
had  retreated  before  the  invading  German  armies  as  they 
drove  through  Poland  and  Western  Russia.  The  center 
of  the  Friends'  work  was  at  Buzuluk  in  the  Samara 
Province. 

The  American  Unit,  consisting  of  six  women, — Anna  J. 
Haines,  Lydia  Lewis,  Esther  White,  Emilie  Bradbury, 
Nancy  Babb,  and  Amelia  Farbiszewski — started  for  South- 
eastern Russia  on  the  29th  of  June,  1917,  to  join  with 
English  Friends  who  had  already  established  an  extensive 
mission  of  relief  for  refugees  and  civilians.  They  reached 
the  field  of  their  activities  at  the  end  of  August  where  they 
divided  their  group,  each  one  of  the  workers  going  to  a 
diffei-ent  center  of  activity.  These  six  centers  were  in  vil- 
lages, separated  by  one  or  two  days'  travel  in  a  springless 
cart  or  sledge  from  the  main  office,  which  was  situated  in 
Buzuluk,  a  town  of  about  15,000  inhabitants  and  one  of 
the  largest  wheat  depots  on  the  Samara-Tashkent  railroad. 

244 


SERVICE  WORK  IN  OTHER  LANDS         245 

Each  of  the  villages  in  the  surroiindino:  country  held  a 
native  farming  population  of  about  4,000,  and  since  the 
early  part  of  the  great  war  housed,  in  addition,  a  refugee 
population  of  from  one  to  five  hundred  persons.  Owing  to 
two  years'  drought,  famine  conditions  prevailed  and  the 
refugees,  as  consumers  and  non-producers,  were  very  un- 
popular. ]\Iost  of  them  were  women,  old  men  and  children, 
as  the  young  and  middle-aged  men  were  still  in  the  army. 
The  English  Friends  had  already  established  a  hostel  in 
a  huge  manor  house  recently  deserted  by  a  rich  tobacco 
merchant,  where  orphans,  childless  old  people,  and  a  few 
families  in  which  the  mothers  were  incapacitated  for  work, 
were  given  refuge  (in  all  about  125  people).  In  that  village 
and  in  two  others  English  doctors  were  established,  taking 
the  place  of  the  Russian  physicians  who  had  gone  to  the 
front,  leaving  the  civilian  population  without  medical  aid. 
Hospitals  were  opened  and  managed  by  English  nurses. 
One  doctor's  district  covered  an  area  including  60,000  peo- 
ple, and  many  of  his  patients  had  two  days'  drive  to  reach 
him.  The  dispensary  waiting-rooms  presented  interesting 
opportunities  for  racial  study,  as  Tartars,  Bashkirs,  Kir- 
gheze,  Ukrainians,  Cossacks,  Bulgarians,  Mordvins,  Serbs, 
Austrians,  and  German  prisoners  patiently  waited  their 
turn  with  Russian  natives  and  refugees.  Frequently  120 
patients  would  be  seen  in  one  morning.  Diseases  of  all 
sorts  abounded.  Christmas  Day  found  one  sixteen-bed  hos- 
pital filled  with  patients  who  had  anthrax,  hj^datid  cyst, 
typhus,  typhoid,  pneumonia,  puerperal  fever,  diphtheria, 
tubercular  bone,  frozen  feet,  and  lunacy.  In  two  other 
villages  where  there  was  no  doctor  a  visiting  nurse  made 
rounds  every  day  and  saw  besides  about  fifty  patients  in 
the  dispensary  each  morning.  In  addition  to  their  dispen- 
sary and  hospital  duties  and  operations  the  doctors  made 


246  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

many  trips  into  the  country  to  sick  patients,  and  visits  of  in- 
spection and  advice  to  villages  where  typhus,  typhoid  or 
small-pox  epidemics  had  broken  out.  Special  food  was 
often  given  to  patients  who  required  better  nourishment 
than  they  could  afford  to  buy. 

Relief  work  other  than  medical  was  confined  to  the 
refugees.  "Work-rooms  were  established  in  six  villages 
where  at  least  one  member  of  each  refugee  family  was  given 
employment, — spinning,  weaving,  knitting,  sewing  or  em- 
broidering. About  500  women  were  on  the  pay-roll  at  one 
time  in  the  various  centers.  As  there  was  and  is  so  great 
dearth  of  cloth  in  Russia  these  workshops  were  especially 
valuable  not  only  in  providing  the  wages  which  made  food 
purchaseable  by  the  working  women,  but  they  actually  in- 
creased the  amount  of  wearable  cloth  in  that  part  of  the 
country.  In  addition  to  clothing  all  refugees  in  the  vil- 
lages where  the  members  of  the  mission  lived,  free  clothing 
distribution  was  made  to  all  the  refugees  in  40  other  villages 
in  the  same  county,  covering  an  area  about  75  by  150 
miles  in  extent. 

These  three  activities,  medical  service  for  both  natives 
and  refugees,  workshops  as  the  form  of  relief  most  practical 
and  productive  of  self-respect  for  able-bodied  refugees,  and 
a  hostel  for  the  incompetents,  constituted  the  backbone  of 
the  service  of  Friends  in  Russia  during  1916-17  and  1918. 
In  addition  there  were  numerous  other  closely  allied  but 
less  extensive  activities.  When  after  the  Bolshevik  Revo- 
lution many  of  the  soldier  husbands,  fathers  and  sons  came 
home  from  the  front  the  mission  could  not  see  them  sit 
idle  while  their  wives  worked,  so  a  labor  bureau  was  started 
for  men  and  positions  found  for  many. 

Two  years  of  drought  and  several  years  of  commandeer- 
ing of  food  for  the  army  had  made  such  inroads  on  the 


SERVICE  WORK  IN  OTHER  LANDS         247 

local  supply  of  grain  that  by  the  spring  of  1918  the  stock 
of  seed  was  very  low  and  poor.  It  could  be  purchased  in 
small  quantities  from  the  Cossacks,  two  days'  journey  away, 
but  at  a  cost  prohibitive  to  the  poorer  peasants.  To  prevent 
worse  famine  the  Quaker  workers  loaned  several  thousand 
dollars  to  the  poorest  of  the  native  peasants  for  the  purpose 
of  re-stocking  themselves  with  seed-wheat.  A  contributory 
cause  for  the  poor  harvests  was  the  scourge  of  *'suzlicks," 
a  muskrat-like  animal  which  eats  the  young  blades  and  later 
the  ripened  grain.  One  spring  the  mission  paid  a  bounty 
on  suzlick  skins  and  received  them  by  the  hundreds  of 
thousands. 

The  lack  of  education,  both  academic  and  along  the  lines 
of  useful  trades,  was  one  of  the  gravest  results  of  the  ab- 
normal life  of  the  refugees,  most  of  whom  had  come  from 
neighborhoods  where  more  attention  was  paid  to  trade  edu- 
cation at  least,  than  in  the  steppe  region  where  they  were 
now  located.  The  children  under  direct  charge  of  the 
jMission  in  the  orphanage  received,  of  course,  good  schooling 
under  trained  teachers.  One  winter  the  Friends  arranged  a 
special  morning  school  for  German-speaking  refugee  chil- 
dren of  one  village  who  were  not  received  in  the  native  school. 
In  the  afternoon  classes  for  all  refugee  children  were  held 
in  shoe-making  and  carpentry.  A  more  ambitious  course 
was  carried  out  in  the  town  of  Buzuluk  for  several  months. 
Here  a  regular  trade-school  was  established  with  well- 
equipped  workshops  in  carpentry,  tailoring  and  shoemaking 
for  boys,  and  book-binding  for  girls.  Work  came  from  the 
city  government  as  well  as  from  civilians  and  from  the 
orphanage,  and  this  trade-school  was  kept  upon  a  self-sup- 
porting basis. 

The  Bolshevik  advance  made  it  very  certain  that  Buzuluk 
would  fall  into  their  hands,  after  which  capture  it  was  most 


248  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

improbable  that  the  English  or  American  governments 
would  permit  funds  to  be  forwarded  to  the  workers.  With- 
out the  financial  means  to  carry  on  the  work,  the  workers 
could  be  of  little  use  in  that  part  of  Russia.  They  left  on 
the  last  train  from  Samara  and  started  to  investigate  the 
refugee  situation  in  the  Siberian  railroad  towns.  At 
Omsk  they  found  the  most  frightful  conditions  of  disease, 
overcrowding  and  forced  idleness.  Here  also  they  met 
the  American  Red  Cross,  short  of  workers  but  eager  for 
fresh  helpers,  and  they  allied  themselves  with  it  for  six 
months  of  important  service.  Two  members  of  the  mission, 
Theodore  Rigg  and  Esther  White  succeeded  in  getting 
through  to  Moscow  where  they  spent  the  winter  of  1918-19. 
They  devoted  themselves  to  the  task  of  saving  large  groups 
of  children  from  starvation  by  taking  them  out  of  the 
city  into  country  districts  where  they  could  secure  food 
for  them. 

The  activities  of  the  group  in  Siberia  were  more  con- 
centrated in  area  than  they  had  been  in  Samara,  but  they 
dealt  with  a  greater  number  of  people,  there  being  about 
12,000  refugees  in  the  city  and  suburbs  who  were  touched 
in  some  way  by  the  work.  Disease  was  much  more  preva- 
lent than  in  the  Buzuluk  area.  Epidemics  of  typhus, 
typhoid  and  scurvy  flourished  during  the  winter  and  spring 
as  well  as  much  pneumonia,  small-pox,  and  tuberculosis. 
Their  investigations  showed  that  amongst  the  12,000  refu- 
gees whose  homes  were  visited,  about  3,000  lived  in  summer 
barracks  with  dirt  floors  utterly  unfit  for  the  winter  tem- 
perature which  fell  to  71°  F.  below  zero;  2,500  lived  in 
miserable  dugouts  in  the  ground  almost  without  light  and 
ventilation;  500  lived  in  freight  cars,  and  the  remaining 
6,000  in  all  sorts  of  poor  dwelling-places,  from  cattle  pens 
to  the  corridors  of  public  office  buildings.     One  out  of 


SERVICE  WORK  IN  OTHER  LANDS         249 

every  twelve  persons  was  found  acutely  ill  with  some  dan- 
gerous communicable  disease.  Four  thousand  five  hun- 
dred persons  were  recommended  to  receive  clothes,  and  700 
women  were  suggested  as  needing  home  work  to  keep  their 
families  or  to  supplement  their  husbands'  earnings.  The 
help  based  on  these  investigations  took  much  the  same  form 
as  had  been  found  practical  in  our  earlier  experience: 
labor  bureaus  for  adult  healthy  workers  able  to  leave  home, 
hand-work  in  the  home  for  women  with  little  children  and 
without  male  support,  clothing  distributions,  medical  at- 
tendance, schools  and  orphanages.  Disinfecting  on  a  large 
scale  was  done  in  the  barracks. 

The  unrest  in  Siberia  due  to  the  political  conditions  made 
work  both  for  the  refugees  and  for  many  equally  poor 
natives  most  difficult.  But  the  possibilities  for  permanent 
reconstruction,  bbth  spiritual  and  material,  are  perhaps 
greater  in  Russia  than  in  any  other  count rj^ 

Some  of  the  members  of  the  Service  Committee,  even  in 
the  earlj'  stages  of  its  work,  carried  on  their  hearts  a  deep 
concern  to  do  some  real  constructive  service  for  Serbia. 
The  story  of  suffering  which  came  to  us  from  those  who  had 
been  in  that  distressed  country  moved  us  deepl}'.  We  had, 
however,  for  many  months  all  we  could  do  to  carr^^  forward 
what  we  had  undertaken  in  France  and  Russia.  It  seemed 
wise  to  keep  concentrated  and  to  put  our  united  efforts  into 
the  great  task  which  had  been  laid  on  our  hands.  When 
the  Russian  work  was  closed  by  conditions  over  which  we  had 
no  control,  and  when  we  saw  that  the  Mission  in  France 
would  call  for  only  a  limited  period  of  activity,  our  thought 
turned  strongly  again  toward  Serbia.  A  very  interesting 
Serbian  official  who  was  in  this  country  in  the  autumn  of 
1918,  ^I.  Stoykovitch,  attended  a  session  of  the  Service 
Committee   and  vividly   pictured   to   us  the   woes   of  his 


250  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

country  and  called  upon  us  to  undertake  a  definite  piece 
of  agricultural  reconstruction  not  far  from  Nish.  The  ap- 
peal made  a  deep  impression  and  a  special  committee  was 
appointed,  with  President  W.  W.  Comfort  of  Haverford 
College  as  chairman  of  it,  to  study  the  problems  and  to 
propose  a  line  of  action.  This  committee  spent  much  time 
and  effort  investigating  the  situation.  They  received  the 
most  conflicting  accounts  of  conditions  in  Serbia  and  they 
got  a  great  variety  of  opinions  upon  the  lines  of  relief  which 
were  most  urgently  needed.  It  was  finally  decided  to  send 
out  a  small  commission  of  Friends  to  study  the  problem  on 
the  field.  J.  Lawrence  Lippincott  of  Riverton,  New  Jer- 
sey and  Alvin  Wildman  of  Selma,  Ohio,  were  chosen  for  this 
important  service.  The  committee  decided  to  send  out  a 
small  band  of  workers  with  the  commission  so  that  there 
might  be  no  delay  in  starting  operations  when  once  the  plan 
of  work  was  formulated,  and  it  was  further  decided  to  ap- 
propriate $40,000  to  purchase  supplies  for  the  use  of  this 
unit,  which  was  to  take  up  its  practical  task  as  soon  as  the 
field  of  activity  was  selected  by  the  commission. 

The  commission  sailed  from  New  York  in  July,  1919,  ac- 
companied by  a  small  band  of  workers  and  followed  a  few 
days  later  by  a  second  band,  making  fifteen  in  all.  The 
unit  consisted  of  the  following  workers:  Cecil  Franklin 
Cloud  of  Ivor,  Va.,  Elsa  M.  Eliot  of  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  Sam- 
uel E.  Eliot  of  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  Philip  William  Furnas  of 
Indianapolis,  Ind.,  Andrew  R.  Pearson  of  Swarthmore,  Pa., 
Arthur  J.  Rawson  of  Lincoln,  Va.,  Loreta  O.  Rush  of  Fair- 
mount,  Ind.,  Antoinette  E.  C.  Russell  of  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
Elwood  D.  Thomasson  of  Springfield,  Iowa,  and  William 
H.  Wolfram  of  Boston,  Mass.  Lawrence  Lippincott  and 
Alvin  Wildman  made  a  careful  study  of  the  various  relief 
agencies  operating  in  Serbia,  they  consulted  with  authori- 


SERVICE  WORK  IN  OTHER  LANDS         251 

ties  and  experts,  and  they  worked  out  their  plans  for  our 
form  of  service.  Housing  was  plainly  one  of  the  great 
needs  in  the  face  of  oncoming  winter.  In  the  region  as- 
signed to  us  in  the  Toplica  Valley  the  houses  had  been 
largely  destroyed  and  the  inhabitants,  i.e.  women  and 
children,  for  the  men  were  not  yet  back,  were  living  in 
rude  summer  shelters. 

Our  little  band  of  workers  had  two  hundred  Bulgarian 
prisoners  put  under  their  care  and  direction  for  house- 
building work.  They  also  received  a  supply  of  rough  lum- 
ber and  fifty  mules  to  do  the  work  of  transportation.  The 
prisoners  proved  to  be  good  willing  workers,  responsive  to 
kind  treatment  and  ready  to  restore  what  they  once  de- 
stroyed. Besides  carrying  on  the  house-building  operations 
it  was  decided  to  open  and  manage  an  orphanage  for  the 
destitute  children  of  the  region.  A  large  farm  with  ex- 
tensive buildings  was  secured  at  Lescovatz.  The  buildings 
were  reorganized  and  made  ready  for  a  numerous  group 
of  children,  and  a  medical  dispensary  connected  with  the 
orphanage  was  provided  for  the  district.  The  work  is 
progressing  and  is  bringing  most  needed  relief  to  the  sec- 
tion of  Serbia  that  has  fallen  to  our  care. 

Throughout  the  whole  period  of  the  war  English  Friends 
had  devoted  much  care  and  attention  to  the  enemy  aliens 
who  were  held  in  the  internment  camps  in  Great  Britain 
and  to  their  needy  families.  This  work,  which  was  carried 
on  by  the  ''Emergency  Committee,"  was,  of  course,  un- 
popular and  often  misunderstood,  but  it  was  a  beautiful 
form  of  human  relief  and  aroused  the  sympathy  and  inter- 
ested support  of  those  who  understood  its  loving  and  un- 
selfish spirit.  It  received  some  financial  assistance  from 
America,  and  a  small  attempt  was  made  by  Friends  in  this 
country  to  do  a  similar  work  among  the  Gennans  and  Aus- 


252  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

trians  interned  here.  In  the  clash  of  arms  such  waves  of 
hate  are  generated  that  everybody  who  belongs  even  re- 
motely to  the  enemy  peoples  is  supposed  to  be  himself  an 
enemj^  and  is  therefore  treated  as  an  outcast  to  be  shunned 
by  everybody.  It  seems  difficult  to  remember,  under  such 
circumstances,  how  many  innocent  sufferers  there  are  and 
how  tragic  are  the  experiences  of  those  who  are  free  from 
all  complicity  in  wrong-doing  but  who  have  been  caught 
in  the  great  net  spread  for  really  dangerous  enemy  aliens. 
Friends  could  not  forget  these  innocent  sufferers  and  they 
knew,  furthermore,  that  there  were  very  many  persons, 
even  in  the  enemy  countries  as  well,  who  were  not  enemies 
in  act  or  spirit,  who  were  not  responsible  for  the  war,  who 
did  not  approve  of  barbarities,  and  who  were  eagerly  pray- 
ing for  the  tragedy  to  come  to  an  end  so  that  men  and 
women  and  children  might  once  more  live. 

The  Friends  who  thus  kept  alive  their  human  sympathies 
and  humanitarian  instincts  were  not  ' '  pro-German. ' '  They 
did  not  approve  at  all  of  German  military  aims,  policies, 
or  methods.  They  knew  that  only  tragedy  could  come  as 
the  bitter  fruit  of  the  theory  of  life  which  had  controlled 
the  military  party  in  Germany.  But  all  the  more  for  that 
reason  they  travailed  in  sorrow  and  pain  for  those  who 
though  innocent  had  to  tread  the  wine-press  of  agony  with 
those  who  were  guilty.  The  first  real  assistance  of  im- 
portance which  Friends  were  able  to  give  to  the  enemy 
peoples  in  their  own  country  was  in  the  city  of  Vienna. 
The  tragedy  of  "the  middle  empires"  culminated  in  this 
city,  once  the  gayest  in  Europe.  A  large  number  of 
causes — political,  economic  and  sociological,  and  psycho- 
logical no  doubt  as  well — united  to  produce  the  climax  of 
catastrophe  in  this  center  of  art  and  music  and  scientific 
achievement.     When  English  Friends  first  came  to  Vienna 


SERVICE  WORK  LN  OTHER  LANDS         253 

in  May  of  1919  they  were  appalled  at  the  sight  of  suflfering 
which  met  them.  It  appeared  in  the  most  harrowing  form 
in  the  condition  of  the  underfed  children,  and  therefore  the 
work  which  they  began  at  once  to  organize  had  to  do  pri- 
marily with  saving  the  children.  Dr.  Hilda  Clark  made 
the  following  report  of  the  conditions: 

'^What  I  find  is  that  sixty  per  cent,  of  their  children 
have  severe  rickets,  and  hardly  one  is  free  from  the  slighter 
degrees.  No  wonder  that  the  hospitals  and  dispensaries  are 
all  over-crowded  with  cases  of  rickets — no  wonder  the  tu- 
berculosis rate  keeps  rising.  The  future  of  these  children 
is  either  to  die  of  some  trifling  childish  ailment  in  the  win- 
ter, to  become  the  victims  of  chronic  tuberculosis  or  to  grow 
up  crippled  and  deformed.  Even  the  slighter  degrees  of 
deformity,  due  to  rickets,  will  in  women  produce  difficulty 
and  disaster  in  childbirth. 

''The  full  extent  of  the  disaster  that  has  befallen  the 
children  of  Vienna  is  not  realized  by  many,  even  of  those 
who  visit  here.  Cases  of  tuberculosis  and  rickets  can  be 
seen  in  any  hospital  in  England,  but  one  must  point  out 
that  the  cases  of  'late  rickets'  in  children  over  three  years 
old  were  almost  unknown  till  now.  The  increase  in  the 
number  of  cases  cannot  easily  be  demonstrated  until  the 
death  rate  shows  it — and  the  children  do  not  die  of  rickets 
alone. 

"The  children  of  one  to  five  years  are  seldom  seen  in  the 
streets  for  they  can  hardly  toddle,  and  unless  you  undress 
them  and  ask  their  ages  you  would  not  realize  what  had 
happened.  Yet  many  of  these  children  can  be  cured  quite 
quickly  if  fresh  milk  can  be  given,  and  even  the  bad  cases 
are  often  cured  with  cod  liver  oil.  The  distribution  of 
milk  and  fats  among  this  class  of  child  would  do  more  to 
prevent  the  increase  of  the  death  rate  and  the  development 


254  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

of  rickets  and  tuberculosis  than  any  other  measure,  and 
would,  in  my  opinion,  have  a  most  far-reaching  effect  on  the 
future  of  the  race.  Extra  nourishment  is  also  needed  for 
the  mothers  during  pregnancy  and  lactation  to  prevent  the 
infant  mortality  from  continuing  to  rise. ' ' 

From  the  first  the  work  of  relief  was  planned  with  marked 
intelligence  and  was  characterized  by  boldness  and  vigor. 
The  American  Committee  was  asked  to  cooperate  in  the 
Vienna  relief  work  which  we  did  by  furnishing  workers 
who  had  already  been  trained  in  France  and  who  were 
well  qualified  for  meeting  the  new  emergency.  We  also 
appropriated  $25,000  to  assist  in  purchasing  supplies. 
/  ;The  work  as  planned  by  Dr.  Hilda  Clark,  whose  "concern" 
■  it  was,  included  a  system  of  Infant  Welfare  Relief  Centers 
where  milk,  cocoa,  and  other  child  foods  were  distributed 
for  the  mal-nourished  children.  It  included  also  an  organi- 
zation for  visiting  homes  and  hospitals  and  for  assisting 
both  private  and  public  institutions,  so  that  they  might  get 
the  supplies  which  were  most  important  for  saving  the 
children's  lives.  In  connection  with  this  work  it  was  soon 
found  necessary  to  perfect  an  arrangement  for  securing 
pure  milk  which,  due  to  the  separation  of  Vienna  from  its 
natural  food  sources,  had  become  extremely  scarce.  By 
unceasing  effort  and  no  little  spirit  of  venture  the  Friends 
induced  the  municipality  of  Vienna  to  buy  from  the  country 
■ ''  districts  three  hundred  cows  and  to  bring  them  to  Vienna 
where  the  Friends  agreed  to  keep  them  fed  and  to  get  the 
milk  applied  where  it  was  most  needed.  They  imported 
five  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  linseed  oil  cake  from 
America  to  be  used  as  intensive  food  for  the  cows.  On  this 
plan  it  is  estimated  that  a  child  can  be  supplied  with  milk 
for  six  months  at  a  cost  of  $4.50. 
Another  form  of  relief  on  a  very  large  scale  was  the  dis- 


SERVICE  WORK  Ix\  OTHER  LANDS         255 

tribution  of  clothing  sent  for  the  purpose  from  England 
and  America.  The  little  babies  were  being  wrapped  in 
paper,  and  the  boys  and  girls  were  going  about  in  clothes 
made  of  coarse  potato  bags  and  other  similar  substitutes  for 
clothing.  From  the  Quaker  centers  of  relief  a  very  large 
number  of  children  and  others  have  been  supplied  with 
warm  and  comfortable  clothes,  which  made  them  feel  as 
though  life  was  beginning  anew. 

Almost  more  difficult  was  the  problem  of  fuel.  The  ration 
of  coal  assigned  for  each  family  in  Vienna  for  the  entire 
winter  was  about  seventeen  hundred  pounds.  Even  that 
meager  amount  has  not  been  actually  furnished.  Street 
cars  were  forced  to  stop  running,  manufacturing  became 
impossible,  and  the  city  was  threatened  with  a  complete 
paralysis  of  functions.  Frederick  Kuh,  one  of  our  Ameri- 
can workers  who  was  transferred  from  the  French  field 
for  service  in  Austria,  writes:  ''On  the  outskirts  of  Vienna, 
as  the  train  draws  into  the  metropolis,  one  sees  hundreds 
of  factories  with  every  gaunt,  towering  chimney  dormant — 
not  a  puff  of  smoke  visible  at  a  moment  when,  as  never  be- 
fore, smoke,  fire,  production,  the  means  to  live,  are  all 
essential.  Coal  has  become  a  myth,  of  ante-bellum  days. 
What  untold  hardships  absence  of  coal  has  already  caused 
are  without  end.  The  trees  in  the  beautiful  parks  of 
the  city  and  suburbs  have  been  cut  down  to  supply  emer- 
gency fuel,  while  many  a  home  has  consumed  its  furniture 
to  cook  the  scanty  meals  for  the  family.  Friends  have  re- 
sorted to  various  expedients  for  relieving  the  suffering 
from  cold,  though  they  have,  of  course,  been  able  to  help 
only  in  a  limited  way.  They  have  brought  some  supplies 
of  coal  from  the  coal  fields  in  their  motor  cars  and  they 
have  at  least  helped  the  hospitals  to  maintain  a  reasonable 
amount  of  heat." 


256  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

A  special  correspondent  to  the  Manchester  Guardian, 
who  went  out  to  study  the  tragedy  and  to  report  upon  the 
methods  of  relief,  wrote  the  following  account  which  was 
published  in  the  above-named  newspaper  under  date  of 
December  26th,  1919 : 

''What  the  Friends  Relief  Mission  means  to  this  sorrow- 
ful city  (Vienna)  in  which  since  last  May  it  has  been 
working,  only  tim'e  can  completely  show.  One  catches 
hints  of  its  wonderful  value  here  and  there.  They  are 
to  be  found  at  hospitals  and  clinics,  where  suffering  people 
give  a  grateful  welcome  to  any  one  wearing  the  red-star 
badge.  They  are  to  be  found,  too,  in  the  respect  with 
which  members  of  the  mission  are  everywhere  treated.  To 
have  saved  hundreds  of  little  children  from  a  diseased  life 
of  utter  misery  is  a  beautiful  thing,  but  it  is  far  from 
being  the  only  or  maj^be  even  the  biggest  miracle  worked 
here  by  the  Society  of  Friends.  For  the  Viennese  people — 
pleasant,  intelligent  people,  I  have  found  them — ^the  mission 
has  softened  both  the  bitterness  of  their  defeat  and  the 
hardness  of  their  suffering.  To  men  and  women  utterly 
humiliated  by  conquest  and  crushed  by  privation,  it  has 
been  a  wonderful  thing  to  be  helped  by  those  from  whom 
they  least  expected  help.  Through  the  gentleness  and  self- 
sacrifice  of  these  workers  they  will  be  able  to  rebuild  their 
broken  lives." 

Carolena  M.  Wood  was  the  first  American  Friend  to  take 
active  steps  to  express  sympathy  and  love  and  a  spirit  of 
service  to  the  German  people  in  their  own  country.  She 
went  to  France  in  the  spring  of  1919,  visited  the  French 
Mission  and  through  the  assistance  of  Herbert  Hoover  was 
able  to  go  forward  to  Germany  with  the  expectation  of 
having  food  supplies  to  distribute.  Jane  Addams  and  Dr. 
Alice  Hamilton,  both  of  whom  had  joined  our  Mission  in 


SERVICE  WORK  IN  OTHER  LANDS         257 

France,  arranged  also  to  go  to  Germany  with  Carolena 
Wood.  When  they  reached  London  they  found  a  small 
party  of  English  Friends  preparing  to  set  out  on  a  similar 
mission,  as  soon  as  the  Peace  Treaty  was  signed.  A  minute 
of  the  London  Meeting  for  Sufferings  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  under  date  of  July  4th,  1919,  expresses  the  pur- 
pose of  the  delegation — the  first  to  go  to  Germany  with  a 
purely  unselfish  aim  and  with  a  hope  to  prove  that  there 
are  no  frontiers  to  love.      The  minute  says ; 

**We  are  thankful  to  learn  that  the  following  members  of  the 
religious  Society  of  Friends  are  now  proceeding  to  Germany 
under  a  deep  sense  of  the  need  which  exists  for  mutual  friendly 
intercourse  and  fellowship  between  those  who  all  belong  to  the 
same  great  human  family  and  who  have  been  separated  during 
these  sad  years  of  war,  namely: 

"Marion  C.  Fox,  Joan  M.  Fry,  J.  Thompson  Elliott,  and  Max 
Bellows  from  England,  together  with  Carolena  M.  Wood,  from 
America,  who  is  accompanied  by  Jane  Addams  and  Dr.  Alice 
Hamilton. 

"Our  friends  are  traveling  on  behalf  of  the  committee  which 
has  under  its  care  the  arrangements  for  sending  'Gifts  of  Love' 
to  Germany,  in  the  form  of  food,  clothes,  and  other  necessities, — 
a  work  that  is  shared  in,  not  only  by  'the  Emergency  Committee 
for  the  Assistance  of  Germans,  Austrians  and  Hungarians  in 
Distress'  and  'the  Friends  War  Victims  Relief  Committee,'  but 
by  many  other  persons  not  associated  with  Friends  in  mem- 
bership." 

The  four  English  members  of  the  committee  who  travelled 
through  the  occupied  region  and  entered  Germany  via 
Cologne,  reached  Berlin  July  6th ;  the  three  American 
members  who  traveled  through  Holland  and  crossed  the 
border  on  the  first  civilian  passports  issued  there  since  the 
signing  of  peace,  arrived  in  Berlin  July  7th.     Dr.  Aletta 


258  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

Jacobs,  a  Dutch  physician  who  had  been  asked  as  a  neutral 
to  make  observations  on  health  conditions  in  Germany,  was 
a  fourth  member  of  the  second  party.  Dr.  Elizabeth  Rot- 
ten of  Berlin,  who  has  been  acting  as  the  representative  in 
Germany  of  the  work  of  the  English  Friends  and  is  also 
head  of  the  Educational  Committee  of  the  German  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Promotion  of  the  League  of  Nations,  was 
naturally  guide  and  adviser  in  making  arrangements  for 
the  distribution  of  such  assistance  as  we  might  be  able  to 
send  from  America. 

The  American  Friends  Service  Committee  put  $30,000 
at  the  disposal  of  this  delegation  to  be  used  for  the  most 
urgently  needed  foods.  English  Friends  had  ever  since 
the  signing  of  the  armistice  been  sending  supplies  of  food 
and  clothing  to  Germany.  In  addition  to  our  appropriation 
for  food  we  also  sent  twenty-five  tons  of  new  clothing.  It 
was  a  small  amount  in  the  face  of  such  universal  need  as 
was  revealed  there,  but  it  was  at  least  a  beginning  and  a 
promise  of  what  might  follow,  and  it  indicated  a  spirit  of 
faith  and  hope  that  a  new  era  of  life  might  emerge. 

Jane  Addams  and  Dr.  Hamilton  made  a  careful  and  il- 
luminating study  of  health  and  food  conditions.  Their 
report  was  issued  in  Bulletin  No.  25  of  the  Service  Com- 
mittee's publications  and  has  been  widely  circulated  in 
America.  No  one  who  has  read  this  report  can  doubt  that 
there  was  a  grave  situation  to  be  met. 

Carolena  Wood's  letters  supply  vivid  accounts  of  the 
great  suffering  in  Germany.  She  says:  "The  first  week 
or  ten  days  I  was  in  Germany  was  given  to  visiting  hos- 
pitals, orphan  asylums,  day  nurseries  and  clinics  for  chil- 
dren to  gather  an  impression  of  the  physical  suffering  which 
is  here  by  seeing  some  of  the  little  wasted  bodies  due  to  the 
ravages  of  tuberculosis  and  rickets,  and  which  must  result 


SERVICE  WORK  IN  OTHER  LANDS         259 

in  death,  iuvalidism,  or  a  lot  of  dwarfs.  All  is  directly 
due  to  iinder-nourishment.  As  we  went  about  there  ran 
in  my  ears  these  words  of  the  desperate  mother  to  the 
prophet,  'I  have  but  a  handful  of  meal  in  the  barrel  and 
a  little  oil  in  the  cruse,  and  behold  I  am  gathering  two 
sticks  that  I  may  go  in  and  dress  it  for  me  and  my  son 
that  we  may  eat  it  and  die/     So  far  has  Germany  gone 

"When  I  saw  the  destruction  left  in  the  battle-fields 
of  France  I  wished  that  all  the  world  might  go  there  to 
see  what  war  is,  but  this  is  no  less  a  battle-field  with  its 
deep  awful  lesson.  The  birth  rate  is  reduced  one-half  and 
it  is  well.  This  is  a  hard  world  into  which  to  invite  a  new 
life  to  come.     We  must  first  make  the  world  safe  for  it. 

"When  I  saw  Mr.  Hoover  in  Paris  he  said:  'We  may 
count  food  values  in  calories,  but  we  have  no  way  to  meas- 
ure human  misery.'  We  may  go  about  the  streets  here 
looking  at  the  shop  windows  and  at  the  well  people  we 
see,  and  not  know  the  sorrow  of  German^^  It  is  only  as 
we  enter  humbly  and  tenderly  into  the  room  of  suffering 
that  our  hearts  can  in  same  sense  measure  the  pain." 

But  great  as  is  the  material  need  the  spiritual  need  is 
even  greater.  We  quote  from  Carolena  Wood :  ' '  The  result 
of  this  physical  under-nourishment  on  the  mental  aiul 
spiritual  life  of  the  people  is,  of  course,  profound.  It  is 
very  difficult  for  them  to  concentrate  their  minds  on  any 
subject  for  long,  and  their  judgments  must  be  superficial. 
They  are  mentally  tired  and  worn.  Doubt  follows  them 
everywhere  as  they  look  at  their  neighbors,  at  their  politi- 
cal parties,  at  their  government,  at  the  world,  at  mankind, 
at  God.  They  say  again  and  again, '  we  are  hopeless. '  Still 
upon  these  hungry  bodies  and  tired  souls  press  the  most 
tremendous  problems  of  reconstruction  in  business,  church 
and  government.  .  .  . 


260  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

*'It  is  impossible  to  over-emphasize  the  despair  of  the 
higher  class  people  who  have  not  a  spiritual  perspective, 
and  it  is  very  touching  the  way  in  which  they  lay  hold  of 
a  Friendly  hand  and  of  Friendly  thoughts.  There  is  a 
wonderful  opening  for  us  here.  The  philosophy  of  force 
has  crumpled  in  their  hands." 

The  effect  of  this  visit  of  English  and  American  Friends 
upon  the  German  people  of  all  classes  was  astonishing.  It 
was  an  instant  revelation  of  the  way  heart  responds  to 
heart  and  spirit  to  spirit.  They  found  a  people  wounded, 
beaten,  broken  in  body  and  spirit.  The  terms  of  peace 
had  made  people  in  Germany  suppose  that  the  whole  world 
was  determined  to  humiliate  and  crush  them  to  the  last 
turn  of  the  screw.  Unexpectedly  a  group  of  representative 
Friends  came  among  them  with  no  reference  to  their  wick- 
edness, with  no  desire  for  vengeance,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
breathing  peace  and  kindness  and  bearing  in  their  hands 
tokens  of  friendship  and  kindly  human  interest.  The  im- 
pression made  upon  all  classes  of  people  was  profound,  and 
though  they  desperately  needed  food  they  appeared  even 
more  eager  to  learn  about  the  underlying  religious  faith 
and  the  spiritual  message  of  their  Friendly  visitors. 

Other  English  Friends  followed  up  the  visit  of  this  first 
group  and  the  American  committee  was  planning  to  send 
over  a  small  unit  of  men  and  women  to  render  various 
types  of  service  during  the  winter,  when  we  were  suddenly 
surprised  to  receive  from  Herbert  Hoover,  chairman  of 
the  American  Relief  Administration  of  the  European 
Children's  Fund  a  call  to  take  entire  charge  in  Germany 
of  the  distribution  of  food  to  save  the  children.  He  came 
first  to  Philadelphia  and  presented  to  a  small  group  of 
us  in  person  his  plan  of  relief.  This  was  supplemented 
and  made  more  definite  in  a  letter  sent  to  the  chairman  of 


SERVICE  WORK  IN  OTHER  LANDS         261 

the  committee,  and  later  the  whole  plan  was  re-stated  in  a 
second  letter  written  November  17th,  which  was  as  follows : 

Friend  Jones: — I  beg  to  confirm  the  understandinjj:  with  re- 
gard to  our  arrangement  that  you  should  further  expand  your 
organization  of  relief  for  under-nourished  children  in  Germany. 
As  I  explained  to  you,  the  European  Children's  Fund,  under  my 
direction,  is  at  present  engaged  in  the  special  feeding  of  some 
three  million  under-nourished  children  in  various  parts  of  Europe 
and  there  has  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  this  fund  certain 
moneys  for  extension  of  this  work  to  Germany. 

There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  need  of  further  expansion 
of  the  service  that  your  society  has  been  for  some  months  carry- 
ing on  in  Germany.  The  vital  statistics  as  to  mortality  and  mor- 
bidity of  German  child  life  are  sufficient  evidence  of  this,  aside 
from  the  personal  knowledge  I  have  as  to  the  actual  nutritional 
situation  amongst  children. 

The  food  situation  in  all  parts  of  Europe  affects  child  life  more 
than  any  other  element  in  that  community,  because  the  destruc- 
tion of  cattle  and  the  shortage  of  cattle-feed  will  continue  the 
milk  famine  over  this  coming  winter  with  great  severity.  Despite 
the  suffering  and  losses  imposed  upon  the  American  people 
through  the  old  German  Government,  I  do  not  believe  for  a 
moment  that  the  real  American  would  have  any  other  wish 
than  to  see  any  possible  service  done  in  protection  of  child  life 
wherever  it  is  in  danger.  We  have  never  fought  with  women 
and  children. 

I  j)articularly  turn  to  you,  because  I  am  anxious  that  efforts  of 
this  kind  should  not  become  the  subject  of  political  propaganda. 
The  undoubted  probity,  ability  and  American  character  of  the 
Quakers  for  generations  will  prevent  any  such  use  being  made  of 
your  service,  and  for  this  reason,  I  propose  that  the  funds  at 
my  disposal  should  be  devoted  exclusively  to  your  support. 

In  order  that  you  may  have  definite  support  upon  which  you 
may  rely,  the  European  Children's  Fund  will  undertake  to  fur- 
nish transportation,  both  railway  and  overseas,  entirely  free  of 


262  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

charge  to  your  society  for  any  supplies  that  you  may  wish  to 
dispatch  for  child  relief  from  the  United  States  to  any  point  in 
Germany,  up  to  next  July.  This  office  will  also,  if  you  desire, 
act  free  of  charge  as  purchasing  agent  for  any  such  supplies, 
handling  them  in  combination  with  supplies  for  the  sixteen  other 
countries  where  work  for  children  is  in  active  progress.  I  under- 
stand that  your  society  is  prepared  to  pay  the  entire  overhead 
expenses  of  organization  in  the  United  States  and  of  distribution 
in  Germany  and,  therefore,  any  contributions  made  to  you  would 
be  entirely  expended  in  the  purchase  of  foodstuffs  ex-factory  in 
the  United  States,  with  no  deductions  for  management  or  trans- 
portation. 

It  is  my  understanding  that  your  actual  distribution  in  Germany 
is  done  through  local  German  charitable  societies  already  en- 
gaged in  such  work  and  will  be  supervised  by  Quaker  delegates 
from  the  United  States.  I  wish  to  express  my  appreciation  of 
the  wisdom  of  this  basis  of  organization. 

I  believe  there  are  many  patriotic  American  citizens  of  Ger- 
man descent  who  will  be  willing  and  anxious  to  contribute  to  your 
society  for  this  work.  I  strongly  urge  upon  all  such  well-in- 
tentioned persons  to  support  your  society  to  the  extent  of  their 
resources.  The  need  is  great.  Your  society  has  demonstrated 
its  large  abilities  and  sympathy.  There  will  be  no  political  com- 
plexion in  your  work.  Subscriptions  to  you  under  these  arrange- 
ments will  secure  a  much  larger  result  in  actual  food  delivered 
than  through  any  other  sources. 

Faithfully  yours, 

(Signed)  Herbert  Hoover. 

The  Service  Committee  went  to  work  at  once  (1)  to 
select  a  unit  for  this  service  and  (2)  to  organize  for  the 
task  of  raising  a  food  fund  to  supply  the  material  for  the 
work  of  relief.  A  unit  of  highly  qualified  workers  was 
quickly  selected.  It  consisted  of  the  following  persons, 
under  the  leadership  of  Alfred  G.  Scattergood  of  Phila- 
delphia:    Dr.  Henry  S.  Pratt,  J.  Edgar  Rhoads,  Harold 


SERVICE  WORK  IiN  OTHER  LANDS         263 

Evans,  Arthur  C.  Jackson,  Robert  W.  Balderstou,  Catherine 
M.  Cox,  Caroline  L.  Nicholson,  Albert  J.  Brown,  Herman 
Newman,  Julia  E.  Branson,  Richard  L.  Cary,  M.  M.  Bailey, 
James  G.  Vail,  Emma  T.  R.  Williams,  William  Eves  3rd, 
Jesse  H.  Holmes,  Caroline  G.  Norment,  and  Arthur  M. 
Charles.  The  second  task  has  been  slower  and  more  dif- 
ficult. There  has  been  a  strong  and  deep-seated  prejudice 
in  the  public  mind  against  doing  anything  to  relieve  suf- 
fering in  Germany,  even  to  save  the  lives  of  children,  and 
many  whose  kindly  instincts  were  with  the  undertaking 
were  yet  restrained  by  public  sentiment,  or  what  they  sup- 
posed was  public  sentiment.  The  German  people  in  Amer- 
ica were  eager  to  help  their  suffering  friends  in  Germany 
but  they  wanted  to  do  it  themselves  and  in  their  own  way. 
There  was  apparently,  too,  on  the  part  of  other  Christian 
denominations  in  the  country  a  feeling  of  surprise  that  one 
small  body  like  ours  should  have  been  chosen  out  alone  to 
do  this  extensive  piece  of  work.  Gradually,  however,  the 
difficulties  are  yielding  to  solution.  When  it  became  gen- 
erally understood  that  the  names  of  donors  were  to  be  given 
wide  publicity  in  Germany  and  that  Friends  were  keeping 
themselves  in  the  background  as  much  as  possible  while  do- 
ing the  work,  and  were  acting  solely  as  the  transmitters  of 
desperately  needed  help,  the  attitude  changed.  Funds  are 
now  coming  from  all  parts  of  America  for  this  work  and  we 
hope  that  as  a  result  relief  can  be  carried  into  aU  the  most 
needy  centers  of  Germany. 

Friends  have  another  important  unit  at  work,  in  Poland 
where  the  conditions  of  under-feeding  and  of  disease  are 
hardly  surpassed  anywhere,  and  where  there  is  a  universal 
lack  of  clothing  and  fuel.  This  work  which  was  primarily 
begun  by  English  Friends  without  assistance  from  us  has 
now  become  in  some  sense  a  joint  undertaking.     We  have 


264  SERVICE  OF  LOVE  IN  WAR  TIME 

sent  a  small  group  of  American  workers  and  we  are  fur- 
nishing funds  towards  the  maintenance  of  the  service. 
The  unit  has  been  actively  engaged  in  stamping  out  the 
dreaded  typhus  fever  and  it  has  established  a  maternity 
and  child-welfare  dispensary  at  Zawiercie.  The  group  has 
consisted  of  about  twenty-five  workers,  three  of  whom  have 
unfortunately  died,  two  of  the  typhus  epidemic.  We 
have  sent  a  small  commission  to  investigate  conditions  of 
life  and  needed  forms  of  relief  in  the  Baltic  provinces, 
especially  in  Lithuania.  Many  of  the  refugees  who  were 
helped  by  our  mission  at  Buzuluk  came  from  the  Kovno 
region  of  Lithuania,  and  we  have  hoped  that  we  might 
assist  them  to  get  settled  and  started  once  more  in  their 
old  home  land  where  conditions  are  very  difficult. 

Another  field  of  service  seems  just  now  to  be  opening  be- 
fore us  in  the  Ukraine.  The  Service  Committee  has  been 
requested  by  the  Ukraine  Association  in  America  to  form  a 
unit  to  go  out  as  a  bureau  of  the  American  Red  Cross  and 
to  take  charge  of  the  distribution  of  immense  quantities  of 
clothing  and  supplies — especially  medicinal  supplies — 
which  the  Ukraine  Republic  bought  of  the  American  Expe- 
ditionary Force  in  France  and  which  are  still  stored  in  that 
country.  We  have  consented  to  undertake  this  new  task 
and  we  are  ready  to  form  a  unit  of  workers  as  soon  as  the 
supplies  are  released  in  France  for  this  purpose. 

Nearer  home  also  we  are  hearing  a  call  for  service.  An 
invitation  has  come  to  the  committee  to  send  a  reconstruc- 
tion unit  to  Mexico.  We  have  decided  to  accept  the  call 
and  to  carry  into  the  disturbed  and  distracted  country 
across  our  border  a  similar  type  of  service  and  a  similar 
spirit  of  fellowship  to  those  which  have  characterized  the 
work   of  reconstruction   in   Europe. 

Nor  is  this  all  that  the  Service  Committee  has  in  mind. 


SERVICE  WORK  IN  OTHER  LANDS  265 

It  is  preparing  for  many  other  lines  and  forms  of  helpful 
activity.  It  is  calling  upon  young  Friends  throughout  the 
country  to  look  toward  volunteering  for  at  least  one  year 
of  service  for  others  before  entering  upon  their  life  career 
in  business  vocations.  Many  types  of  community  service 
are  being  proposed  for  their  consideration  while  the  Ser- 
vice Committee  stands  ready  to  open  the  door  for  each 
specific  line  of  activity,  and  to  provide  the  financial  assist- 
ance for  the  experiment.  It  is  hoped,  of  course,  that  many 
qualified  persons  will  thus  be  turned  permanently  into 
avenues  of  public  and  community  service. 

Nothing  that  our  hands  can  do  ever  can  atone  for  the 
agony,  the  losses  and  the  suffering  which  have  fallen  upon 
the  innocent  during  these  years  of  world  tragedy.  But  I 
have  reviewed  some  of  the  ways  in  which  a  small  group  of 
Christian  people,  who  are  trying  to  follow  the  Galilean, 
have  labored  to  express  their  love  and  sympathy  for  the 
harrowed  and  distressed  innocents  upon  whom  the  violence 
of  the  storm  has  fallen.  It  is  not  written  to  bring  glory 
to  any  person  or  people.  It  is  written  solely  to  interpret  a 
spirit  and  way  of  life,  to  convey,  if  possible,  the  truth  that 
love  will  work  ever^^where  and  always — semper  et  nhiqiie — 
even  wnth  enemies,  vastly  better  than  the  way  of  hate  works. 
Long  ago  in  a  beautiful  story  Tolstoy  insisted  that  Love  is 
'Svhat  men  live  by."  These  various  missions  here  reported 
have  been  trying  to  demonstrate  that.  If  this  book  has 
transmitted  that  idea,  it  has  fulfilled  its  purpose. 


APPENDIX-A 

American  Reconstruction  Workers  in  France 

*  Member  of  the  Haverford  Unit. 


Walter  H.  Abell,  Folsom,  Delaware  Co.,  Pa. 
Loren  0.  Adamson,  Indianola,  Iowa. 

Louisa  A.  Alden,  2313  Dorchester  Ave.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Joseph  T.  Allen,  437  N.  Painter  Ave.,  Whittier,  Cal. 
J.  Roy  Allgyer,  West  Liberty,  Ohio. 
S.  E.  Allgyer,  West  Liberty,  Ohio. 
Harold  T.  Allman,  Friendswood,  Texas. 
*Vaughn  D.  Amick,  Haviland,  Kansas. 
Esther  Andrews,  Shelton,  Conn. 

Esther  C.  Andrews,  22.5  S.  Washington  Ave.,  Whittier,  Cal. 
Mary  E.  Appel,  625  Hamilton  St.,  Allentown,  Pa. 
Truman  D.  Arnold,  1050  E.  Rornbach  St.,  Wilmington,  Ohio. 
Tracy  B.  Augur,  43  Irving  St.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
Fred  D.  Augsberger,  Elida,  Ohio. 

B 

Herbert  H.  Babb,  R.  F.  D.  No.  1,  Ivor,  Va. 

Howard  W.  Babb,  R.  F.  D.  No.  1,  Ivor,  Va. 
*Dr.  James  A.  Babbitt,  lOth  and  Chestnut,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Philip  R.  Bailey,  221  Forest  Ave.,  Portland,  Me. 

Roland  II.  Baiuton,  1108  Edwards  Hall,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Herbert  N.  Baker,  Tonganoxie,  Kansas. 

John  C.  Baker,  Everett,  Bedford  Co.,  Pa. 

M.  Loui.-^e  Baker,  140  N.  15tli  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
*Caleb  C.  Balderston,  Jr.,  Kennett  Square,  Pa. 

Mark  Balderston,  Colora,  Md.  (Guilford  College,  N.  C). 

Richard  M.  Balderston,  Colora,  Md. 

John  D,  Barlow,  London,  Eng. 

Floyd  E.  Bates,  Salem,  R.  F.  D.  No.  4,  Oregon. 

267 


268  APPENDIX 

Charles  Baynes,  R.  R.  3,  Salem,  Indiana. 

Charles  S.  Beal  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Ellis  H.  Beais,  Greenleaf,  Idaho. 

Lee  E.  Beier,  Cazenovia,  Wisconsin. 

Thomas  A.  Benson,  Homedale,  Idaho. 
*F.  Furman  Betts,  24  Carpenter  St.,  Gtn.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Helen  E.  Biddle,  207  Bank  Ave.,  Riverton,  N.  J. 

William  C.  Biddle,  107  Chambers  St.,  New  York  City. 
*A.  Carroll  Binder.  Minnesota  Daily  Star,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Ernest  C.  Binford,  Haviland,  Kansas. 

Clarence  H.  Binns,  4215  Chestnut  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Willard  C.  Blackburn,  New  Waterford,  Ohio. 

Anita  Bliss,  410  Park  Ave.,  New  York  City. 

Amos  T.  Bontrager,  R.*2,  Shipshewana,  Indiana. 

Ethel  Boogher,  6300  Waterman  Ave.,  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

Lewis  O.  Booth,  Flora,  Indiana. 

William  C.  BoAven,  Box  1185,  Yale  Station,  New  Haven,  Conn. 
*Arthur  L.  Bowerman,  care  of  Girard  Trust  Co.,  Broad  and  Chestnut, 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

W^alter  G.  Bowerman,  34  E.  32nd  St.,  Bayonne,  N.  J. 

Joseph  H.  Branson,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Kenneth  A.  Bray,  1511  Fulton  Ave.,  New  York  City. 

Alfred  W.  Brenneman,  Denbeigh,  Va. 

Benjamin  F.  Brenneman,  Denbeigh,  Va. 

Mabel  Brewer,  Forest  Hills,  New  York. 

Walter  C.  Brinton,  4540  Adams  Ave.,  Frankford,  Pa.  (Deceased). 

William  J.  Brockelbank,  Newmarket,  Ontario,  Can.  ( Haver  ford,  Pa. ) . 

Esther  Brophy,  Moorestown,  N.  J. 

^lalcolm  A.  Brosius,  1502  Delaware  Ave.,  Wilmington,  Del. 
*Charles  F.  Brown,  59  Addington  Rd.,  Brookline,  Mass. 

Dorothy  M.  Brown,  East  Lansing,  Michigan. 

Elliott  W.  Brown,  59  Addington  Rd.,  Brookline,  Mass. 

*  Ernest  L.  Brown,  Moorestown,  N.  J. 

,    Henry  T.  Brown,  Jr.,  Moorestown,  N.  J. 
Pearson  C.  Brown,  R.  R.  2,  Ilderton,  Ontario,  Can. 
Robert  P.  Brown,  II,  Moorestown,  N.  J. 
*Sidney  F.  Brown,  333  N.  Irvington  Ave.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Vesta  Brown,  6  Bethany  Place,  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

*  Ralph  P.  Bruner,  Greenfield,  Ind. 
Roy  Buchanan,  Roanoke,  111. 
Chester  E.  Bundy,  Converse,  Indiana. 
Edith  C.  Bunting,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 

*E.  Morris  Burdsall,  Port  Chester,  New  York. 

*  Richard  L.  Burdsall,  Port  Chester,  New  York. 


APPENDIX  260 

Mohn  H.  Buzby,  Hotel  Dennis,  Atlantic  City,  N.  J. 
\A'iliiam  F,  Byron,  Johnstown,  Pa, 
George  H.  Bycraft,  R.  R.  Xo.  2,  Ilderton,  Ontario,  Can. 


Leah  T.  Cadbury,  Haverford,  Pa. 

Clyde  T.  Caldwell,  Fairmount,  Ind. 
^Leland  S,  Calvert,  8elma,  Ohio. 

Stewart  F.  Campbell,  care  of  Geo.  Hewlett,  79  Wall  St.,  New  York 

City. 
'G.  Cheston  Carey,  1004)  Cathedral  St.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Howard  L.  Carey,  Fairmount,  Ind. 

Helen  G.  Carlyle,  843  Hunts  Point  Ave.,  New  York  City. 

Cassius  C.  Carter,  3rd  and  College,  Newberg,  Oregon. 

Elmer  W.  Carter,  Somerton,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
*Leland  K.  Carter,  536  N,  Central  Court,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Rebecca  Carter,  .5356  Knox  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Melvin  A.  Cawl,  210  Brooklyn  Ave.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Charles  H.  Chaffin,  931  Lakeview,  Emporia,  Kansas. 

Elliott  P.  Chambers,  5770  N.  Madison  Ave.,  Pasadena,  Cal. 

Fred  J.  Chambers,  Damascus,  Ohio. 
*\\'illiam  C.  Chambers,  3839  Powelton  Ave.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Edith  A.  Chandlee,  5529  Morris  St.,  Germantown,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Emma  Chandler,  127  Kingsley  Ave.,  Waterloo,  Iowa. 

Harry  L.  Charles,  Tangier,  Okla. 

^larianna  Chase,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

*  Lowell  J.  Chawner,  Pasadena,  Cal. 

W.  Walker  Cheyney,  93  LaCrosse  Ave.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

*  Frank  E.  Cholerton,  Montrose,  Pa. 

Elsie  S.  Church,  9  South  Ave.,  Ithaca,  New  York. 

Lewis  C.  Clark,  Bendena,  Kansas. 

Ruth  Clark,  Georgetown,  111. 

Laurence  Clendenon,  Chewelah,  Wash. 

Edith  Coale,  100  Lippincott  Ave.,  Rivorton,  N.  J. 

James  C.  Cocks,  Cornwall-on-IIudson,  New  York. 

Rowland  C.  Cocks,  315  Seward  Ave.,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Theron  E.  Coffin,  Earlham,  Indiana. 

Frank  E.  Colcord,  Newberg,  Oregon. 
*Arthur  Collins,  Jr.,  513  Ogden  Ave,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 
*Byron  C.  Collins,  ^Riorestown,  N.  J. 

Laura  E.  Comfort.  1340  Ix)mbard  St..  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Forrest  D.  Comfort,  321  N.  "C"  St..  Oskaloosa.  Iowa. 

Marion  S.  Comly,  3311  Arch  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


270  APPENDIX 

Daniel  A.  Compton,  317  E.  3rd  St.,  Plainfield,  N.  J.   (Deceased). 

Chase  L.  Conover,  519  N.  First  St.,  Oskaloosa,  Iowa. 

Bennett  S.  Cooper,  Moorestown,  N.  J. 
*J.  Arthur  Cooper,  1316  E.  Lincoln  Highway,  Coatesville,  Pa. 

Oliver  J.  Cope,  1914  W.  Main  St.,  Marshalltown,  Iowa. 

Paul  M.  Cope,  Hotel  Morton,  Atlantic  City,  N.  J. 
*Thomas  P.  Cope,  Jr.,  200  E.  Johnson  St.,  Gtn.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Omer  A.  Coppock,  Drummond,  Oklahoma. 

Charles  W.  Cory,  Jr.,  Gordon  Bible  School,  30  Evans  Way,  Boston, 
Mass. 

Garfield  V.  Cox,  915  S.  Grant  Ave.,  Crawfordsville,  Ind. 

Joel  Bean  Cox,  Paia  Maui,  Terr,  Hawaii. 

J.  Boyd  Cressman,  38  Chapel  St.,  Kitchener,  Ontario,  Can. 

A.  Hurford  Crosman,  564  Forest  Ave.,  Portland,  Me. 
*William  S.  Crowder,  205  W.  Upsal  St.,  Gtn.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Sara  A.  Cunningham,  Hammonton,  New  Jersey. 

Margaret  Curtis,  28  Mt.  Vernon  St.,  Boston,  Mass. 


D 

^Benjamin  A.  Darling,  4023  Smith  Ave.,  Everett,  Washington. 
Henry  Davis,  Guilford  College,  N.  C. 
^Horace  B.  Davis,  44  Edge  Hill  Rd.,  Brookline,  Mass. 
Milton  C.  Davis,  Miller  Place,  Long  Island,  N.  Y. 
Joe  H.  Detweiler,  R.  D.  3,  Volant,  Pa. 
Francis  H.  Diament,  Devon,  Pa. 
Arthur  D.  Diller,  Elida,  Ohio. 
Mabel  C.  S.  D'Olier,  Moorestown,  N.  J. 
Lloyd  H.  Donnell,  Framingham  Center,  Mass. 
Flavia  M.  Doty,  2224  Washington  Boulevard,  Chicago,  111. 
John  W.  Dorland,  1875  N.  Michigan  Ave.,  Pasadena,  Cal. 
Howard  H.  Douglas,  1123  W.  Court  St.,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 
J.  Nathan  Douglas,  R.  F.  D.  4,  Brunswick,  Maine. 
George  V.  Downing,  Elsmere,  Delaware. 
Edward  R.  Drange,  314  S.  4th  St.,  Elkhart,  Ind. 
Daniel  D.  Driver,  Garden  City,  Missouri.     (Heston,  Kansas.) 
Mary  E.  Duguid,  Moylan,  Pa. 
William  Duguid,  Moylan,  Pa. 
Eleanor  L.  Dulles,  Auburn,  New  York. 
Sophia  H.  Dulles,  311  S.  22nd  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Eugene  A.  Dungan,  R.  R.  3,  Muscatine,  Iowa. 
George  S.  Dunn,  2126  N.  Caraac  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Fred  A.  Dushame,  56  Osgood  St.,  Lawrence,  Mass. 


APPENDIX  271 

E 

Franklin  M,  Earnest,  Jr.,  Mifflinburg,  Pa. 

Charles  B.  Eavey,  Grantham,  Pa. 

Paul  K.  Edwards,  228  College  Ave.,  Richmond,  Ind. 
*William  L.  Edwards,  2054  New  Jersey  Ave.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Helen  T.  Elder,  240  Central  Ave.,  Dayton,  Ohio. 

Katharine  W.  Elkinton,  Moylan,  Pa. 

Howard  W.  Elkinton,  Moylan,  Pa. 

Errol  T.  Elliott,  Haviland,  Kansas. 
*Meade  G.  Elliott,  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Seattle,  Washington. 

Paul  S.  Elliott,  Newberg,  Oregon. 

Paul  G.  Engel,  Central  City,  Nebraska. 

Charles  Evans,  Riverton,  New  Jersey. 


Ralph  Fanning,  Riverhead,  L.  I. 

Francis  H.  Farquhar,  Wilmington,  Ohio. 

Lawrence  Farr,  1408  West  "M"  Ave.,  Oskaloosa,  Iowa. 

Fred  D.  Fellow,  Jr.,  Windfall,  Indiana. 

Eldred  H.  Ferguson,  Whittier,  Cal. 

John  R.  Ferres,  R.  R.  2,  Carthage,  Missouri      (Springfield,  Mo.) 

Frances  C.  Ferris,  151  W.  Hortter  St.,  Germantown,  Pa. 

Leander  W.  Fisher,  176  Williams  Ave.,  Lynn,  Mass. 

Emily  M.  Fletcher,  3232  Ellis  Ave.,  Chicago,  111. 

Jean  Flickinger,  Dalton,  Mass. 

Jacob  B.  Flory,  IGl  E.  King  St.,  Lancaster,  Pa. 

Jesse  G.  Forsythe,  R.  F.  D.  No.  3,  Media,  Pa. 

Harlan  J.  Fuller,  Chewelah,  Washington. 

Arthur  D.  Fulton,  2617  Maryland  Ave.,  Baltimore,  Md. 


Arthur  S.  Gamble,  Winona,  Ohio. 
*Lewi8  S.  Gannett,  47  Barrow  St.,  New  York  City, 
^lary  R.  Gannett,  care  of  N.  Y.  World,  Park  Row,  New  Y^'ork  City. 
Julia  A.  Gardner,  2026  P.  St.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
^Albert  G.  Garrigues,  Haverford,  Pa. 
Paul  A.  George,  P.  O.  Box  272,  league  City,  Texas. 
Christopher  J.  Gerber,  Lu.s  Cruces,  New  Mexico. 
Orie  B.  Gerig,  Smithville,  Ohio. 
Helen  J.  GitFord,  111.*}  Davi.s  St.,  Evanston,  111. 
Maurice  11.  Gilford,  Lindsay,  Cal. 


272  APPENDIX 

James  E.  Gaagey,  Elizabethtown,  Pa. 

Walter  L.  Goddard,  41  Buswell  St.,  Lawrence,  Mass. 
*Clifton  D.  Goff,  Manhasset,  Long  Island,  N.  Y. 

Margaret  Gold,  719  Rush  St.,  Chicago,  111. 

Dorothy  Good,  Williamsport,  Pa. 

Wistar  E.  Goodhue,  639  Church  Lane,  Gtn.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Paul  W.  Gordon,  R.  R.  3,  Box  104,  Bluffton,  Ind. 

William  M.  Gordon,  159  Chester  Ave.,  Chelsea,  Mass. 

Malbone  W.  Graham,  Jr.,  1639  Oxford  St.,  Berkeley,  Cal. 

Chester  S.  Graybill,  Bareville,  Pa. 

Mrs.  Elwood  Griest,  208  S.  Queen  St.,  Lancaster,  Pa. 
*El\vood  Griest,  208  S.  Queen  St.,  Lancaster,  Pa. 

Joseph  C.  Griflfen,  70  Prospect  St.,  Port  Chester,  N.  Y. 


*Leland  T.  Hadley,  327  W.  Main  St.,  Richmond,  Ind. 

Loren  S.  Hadley,  W.  Locust  St.,  Wilmington,  Ohio. 

Olin  C.  Hadley,  Athena,  Oregon. 

Willford  P.  C.  Hagaman,  1556  Adams  Ave.,  Frankford,  Pa. 
*  Joseph  H.  Haines,  5433  Wayne  Ave.,  Germantown,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Ward  L.  Haines,  1156  E.  Morrison  St.,  Portland,  Ore. 

Albert  D.  Hall,  665  Galena  Ave.,  Pasadena,  Cal. 

Foster  A.  Hall,  R.  R.  1,  Salem,  Ohio. 

J.  Floyd  Hall,  Owasa,  Iowa. 

Archibald  C.  Halliday,  ^Menlo  Park,  R.  F.  D.  1,  Box  64,  Cal. 

Laura  Hammer,  Klamath  Falls,  Oregon. 

Russell  B.  Hampton,  R.  D.  2,  Salem,  Ohio. 

Edwin  Hanson,  Central  City,  Nebraska. 

Gurney  F.  Hanson,  Stickney,  South  Dakota. 

William  Y.  Hare,  3401  N.  21st  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Gordon  B.  Hartshorn,  Walden,  Orange  Co.,  New  York. 

J.  Mahlon  Harvey,  Fairmount,  Indiana. 

Cecil  E.  Ha  worth,  R.  1,  Springville,  Iowa. 

Harry  H.  Haworth,  Healdsburgh  High  School,  Healdsburgh,  Cal. 
*William  W.  Hayes,  West  Chester,  Pa. 
♦Leslie  0.  Heath,  Pittsfield,  Mass. 

A.  Russell  Heaton,  Ferris  Lane,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 

Abbie  E.  Henby,  Greenfield,  Indiana. 

Sidney  Henderson,  Paullina,  Iowa. 

Marvin  J.  Henley,  Guilford  College,  North  Carolina. 

Lloyd  D.  Hershey,  Intercourse,  Pa. 

Asa  M.  Hertzler,  Denbeigh,  Va. 

Fred  I.  Hester,  Ridgefarm,  111. 


APPENDIX  273 

Fred  W.  Hiatt,  Fountain  City,  Indiana. 

Abraham  E.  Hiebert,  R.  F.  D.  No.  1,  Hillsboro,  Kansas. 

Herbert  A.  Hill,  1414  Garfield  Ave.,  Pasadena,  Cal. 

Horace  P.  Hill,  415  Oak  Grove  St.,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 
*D.  Hainer  Hinsliaw,  824  Commercial  St.,  Emporia,  Kansas. 

Ezra  B.  Hinsliaw,  Greenleaf,  Idalio. 

Harvey  D.  Hinshaw,  Yadkinville,  N.  C. 

Virgil  V.  Hinshaw,  Xevvberg,  Oregon.      (Studying  abroad.) 
♦Richard  J.  M.  Hobbs.  Guilford  College,  N.  C. 

D.  R.  Hoeppner,  Hillsboro,  Kansas. 

Ruth  Hoffman,  2302  Monroe  St.,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Wray  B.  Hoffman,  2302  Monroe  St.,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Laurence  Hollingsworth,  West  Branch,  Iowa. 

Frederick  T.  Hollowell,  609  W.  127th  St.,  New  York  City. 

Hilda  P.  Holme,  Baltimore,  Md. 

George  0.  Holmes,  Foster,  Nebraska. 

Jesse  H.  Holmes,  Jr.,  5  Whittier  Place,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 

Richard  S.  Holmgren,  E.  Lynn,  Mass. 

Walter  J.  Homan,  Oskaloosa,  Iowa. 
*Harold  D.  Hood,  West  Chester,  Pa. 

Ruth  Hoopes,  220  S.  Broad  St.,  Kennett  Square,  Pa. 

Floyd  R.  Horine,  1308— 18th  St.,  Des  Moines,  Iowa. 
♦Frank  L.  Hornbrook,  806  Florida  Ave.,  Tampa,  Fla. 

Grace  C.  Hornbrook,  806  Florida  Ave.,  Tampa,  Fla. 

Joseph  J.  Hoskins,  Leesburg,  Ohio. 

Atlee  A.  Hostetler,  Baltic,  Ohio. 

Forrest  E.  Hostetler,  Topeka,  Indiana. 

Hamer  V.  Hostetler,  West  Liberty,  R.  R.  2,  Ohio. 

James  A.  Hostetler,  Baltic,  Ohio. 

John  L.  Hotson,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Ronald  B.  Hotson,  728  Lafayette  Ave.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Israel  E.  Hough,  Ambler,  Pa. 

Folger  B.  Howell,  R.  D.  9,  Springfield,  Ohio. 
*Weston  Howland,  New  Bedford,  Mass. 

James  A.  Hull,  Stafford,  Kansas. 

W'm.  I.  Hull,  Swarthmore  College,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 

Raymond  C.  Hunnicutt,  337  N.  Painter  Ave.,  Whittier,  Cal. 

Miiton  P.  Hunter,  R.  F.  D.  No.  2,  Mt.  Kisco,  New  York. 

Beulah  A.  Hurley,  New  Hope.  Pa. 
*Philip  W.  Hussey,  North  Berwick,  Maine. 


r.lcanore  Iredale,  care  of  Mr.  T.  J.  Porter,  Rose  Valley,  Moylan,  Pa. 


274  APPENDIX 


Anna  G.  Jacob,  13  HoUis  Court  Boulevard,  Queens,  Long  Island. 

J.  Robert  James,  R.  D.,  West  Chester,  Pa. 

Elmer  H,  Janz,  Larned,  Kansas. 

Cornelius  C.  Janzen,  Bethel  College,  Newtown,  Kansas. 

Harold  M.  Jay,  151  College  St.,  Wilmington,  Ohio. 
*  Alfred  W.  Jenkins,  321  College  Ave.,  Richmond,  Ind. 

Francis  A.  Jenkins,  5411  Greenwood  Ave.,  Chicago,  111. 

F.  Raymond  Jenkins,  609  National  Rd.,  Richmond,  Ind. 

Carl  C.  Johnson,  Camden,  Indiana. 

Carroll  E.  Johnson,  Oskaloosa,  Iowa. 
*Given  C.  Johnson,  Le  Grand,  Iowa. 

Marjorie  D.  Johnson,  626  N.  Henry  St.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Omer  C.  Johnson,  Richland,  Iowa. 

Robert  H.  Johnson,  205  N.  11th  St.,  Richmond,  Ind. 

Truman  R.  Johnson,  1101  N.  Los  Robles,  Pasadena,  Cal. 

Arthur  Jones,  192  Essex  St.,  Lynn,  Mass. 

Dorothea  B.  Jones,  125  E.  Fourth  St.,  Conshohocken,  Pa. 

Ernest  F.  Jones,  Swansea,  Mass. 

Harlan  T.  Jones,  Central  College,  Central  City,  Neb. 

John  L.  Jones,  6012  Ridge  Ave.,  Roxborough,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
*Dr.  Rufus  M.  Jones,  Haverford,  Pa. 

Nellie  Joyce,  Central  City,  Nebraska. 

K 

Wilbur  W.  Kamp,  New  Philadelphia,  Ohio. 
D.  Chauncey  Kauffman,  R.  R.  3,  West  Liberty,  Ohio. 
John  M.  Kauffman,  West  Liberty,  Ohio. 
Addison  R.  Kauffman,  Box  285,  Newberg,  Oregon. 
Henry  G.  Keeney,  Newberg,  Oregon. 
James  C.  Keever,  No.  Manchester,  Ind. 
*Donald  R.  Kellum,  Camby,  Ind. 
Mary  Kelsey,  Short  Hills,  New  Jersey. 
Robert  M.  Kelsey,  Earlham  College,  Richmond,  Ind. 
Harvey  E.  Kitts,  Kokomo,  R.  R.  9,  Indiana.      (Deceased.) 
George  S.  Klassen,  Lehigh,  Marion  Co.,  Kansas. 
Clifford  L.  Knight,  Liscomb,  Iowa. 

Cornelius  F.  Kruse,  1108  Yale  Station,  New  Haven.  Conn. 
Frederick  R.  Kuh,  Chicago,  111. 


'Harold  S.  Laity,  Chappaqua,  New  York. 
Herbert  M.  Lake,  Chagrin  Falls,  Ohio. 
^Ezra  W.  Lamb,  Amboy,  Indiana. 


APPENDIX  275 

Mary  A.  Lamb,  Hatfield  House,  Long  Beach,  Cal. 
Harold  M.  Lane,  20  S.  T^velfth  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Russell  A.  Lantz,  Topeka.  Ind.      (W.) 
Richard  A.  Larkin,  151  College  St.,  Wilmington,  Ohio. 
John  R.  Levis,  Drexel  Hill,  Pa. 
Lucy  Biddle  Lewis,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 
Frederick  J.  Libby,  Exeter,  X.  H. 
Harry  M.  Lichcty,  Sterling,  Ohio. 
Ora  R.  Lichety,  Sterling,  Ohio, 
Lawrence  E.  Lindley,  Russiaville,  Ind. 
*Howard  A.  Lippincott,  243  W.  Main  St..  Moorestown,  N.  J. 
Albert  J.  Livezey,  R.  F.  D.  Xo.  1,  Box  No.  63,  Barnesville,  Ohio. 
Alfred  H.  Loeb,  St.  James  Hotel  Annex,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Clinton  H.  Longshore,  Langhorne,  Pa. 
Dolan  H.  Loree,  Earlham  College,  Richmond,  Ind. 
Ella  L.  Lounsberry,  1805  Fuller  Ave.,  Hollywood,  Cal. 
Helen  Lyman. 

Mc. 

*  Abbott  McClure,  304  S.  16th  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Lloyd  J.  McCracken,  Rose  Hill,  Kansas. 

Jacob  H.  McDonnel,  Burr  Oak,  Kansas. 
Arthur  H.  McFadden,  Box  294,  State  College,  Pa. 
Maynard  J.  McKay,  502  N.  Walnut  St.,  Wilmington,  Ohio. 
Alice  McKinsey,  Gross,  Nebraska. 
♦Hugh  E.  McKinstry,  140  Dean  St.,  West  Chester,  Pa. 
Mark  E.  C.  McMillian,  Wilmington,  Ohio. 
Herbert  B.  McVey,  123  Rornback  Ave.,  Wilmington,  Ohio. 
Charles  E.  McPherson,  31  No.  Warren  Ave.,  Columbus,  Ohio. 

M 

*E.  Carleton  MacDowell,  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  L.  I.,  N.  Y. 
Harvey  (i.  Mack,  3330  N.  Sydenham  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Adelaide  P.  Mackereth,  Elkview,  Pa. 

*  Roland  E.  Macy,  New  Providence,  Iowa. 
John  W.  Magee,  R.  1,  Box  87,  Silverton,  Ore. 

Glady.s  Manning,  156  Mavety  St.,  Toronto,  Ontario,  Can. 

Katharine  S.  Maris,  835  JelFerson  St.,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Robert  H.  Maris,  100!»  JelTerson  St.,  ^^■i]mington,  Del. 

Loren  B.  Markle,  R.  R.  3,  (laston,  Indiana. 

Thurman  B.  Markle,  C.aston,  Indiana. 
*E.  Howard  Marshall.  T'nion,  Iowa. 
♦Harold  D.  Marshall,  Sutter,  Cal. 


276  APPENDIX 

*Lewis  H.  Marshall,  Westtown  School,  Westtown,  Pa. 

Clinton  Marshburn,  R.  F.  D.  3,  Orange,  California. 

Oscar  Marshburn,  140  S.  Ritter  Ave.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Sylvester  L.  Marshburn,  Whittier  College,  Whittier,  Cal. 

Josiah  P.  Marvel,  127  N.  10th  St.,  Richmond,  Ind. 

Samuel  Mason,  Jr  ,  704  Locust  Ave.,  Germantown,  Phila.,  Pa. 

Max  Maxwell,  518  W.  9th  St.,  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

Belle  Mead,  320  16th  Ave.,  S.,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Frank  R.  Mekeel,  Aurora,  New  York. 

Warren  O.  Mendenhall,  Wyandotte,  Oklahoma. 
*Raymond  D.  Mesner,  Central  City,  Neb. 
*Robert  D.  Metcalf,  9  Wayne  St.,  Worcester,  Mass. 

Jacob  C.  Meyer,  1139  S.  8th  St.,  Goshen,  Ind. 

Dwight  W.  Michener,  Truro,  Iowa. 

Howard  P.  Michener,  Truro,  Iowa. 

R.  Byran  Michener,  Earlham  College,  Richmond,  Ind. 

Ross  C.  Miles,  Salem,  Oregon. 

Alvin  J.  Miller,  480  W.  Main  St.,  Kent,  Ohio. 

Alice  Thompson  Miller,  Ivy  Lodge,  29  E.  Penn  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Anna  L.  Miller,  Riverton,  New  Jersey. 

Earl  E.  Miller,  Manchester,  Oklahoma. 

Eli  A.  Miller,  Millersburg,  Ohio. 

Payson  Miller,  Shipshewana,  Indiana. 

Trueman  T.  Miller,  Middlebury,  Indiana. 

Alfred  W.  Milner,  151  College  St.,  Wilmington,  Ohio. 

Clyde  A.  Milner,  Leesburg,  Ohio.      (Studying  abroad.) 

Dillon  W,  Mills,  Greenleaf,  Idaho. 

George  V.  Mills,  University  of  111.,  McNabb,  111. 

Sumner  A.  Mills,  Earlham,  Indiana. 
*Charles  W^  Moon,  2001  Maple  St.,  Wichita,  Kansas. 

Edith  C.  Moon,  Morrisville,  Pa. 

Wyman  J.  Moon,  Earlham  College,  Richmond,  Ind. 

Ezra  A.  Moore,  Dudley,  R.  2,  N.  C.   (deceased) 

Lyman  L.  Moore,  Liberty,  North  Carolina. 

Raymond  T.  Moore,  17  E.  Stratford  Ave.,  Lanadowne,  Pa. 

Chalmer  E.  Morefield,  Capron,  Oklahoma. 

Elliston  P.  Morris,  2nd,  Phila.,  Pa. 

Samuel  Morris,  Phila.,  Pa. 
*Louis  R.  Morrison,  805  W.  7th  St.,  Richmond,  Ind. 

Paul  de  Mott   (Joined  through  the  London  office). 
*Francis  K.  Murray,  Palo  Alto,  Cal. 
*Frederick  S.  Murray,  Palo  Alto,  Cal. 
*Harold  Myers,  Central  City,  Nebraska. 

Mervin  S.  Meyers,  R.  F.  D.  No.  7,  Lancaster,  Pa. 


APPENDIX  277 

N 

Jay  J.  Newlin,  Earlham,  Iowa. 

Mildred  L.  Nichols,   1604  West  Pico,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 
E.  Leslie  Nicholson,  R.  F.  D.   1,  Westville,  N.  J. 
S.  Francis  Nicholson,  614  S.  W.  "A"  St.,  Richmond,  Ind. 
Sidney  O.  Nicholson,  Westville,  N.  J. 
'Vincent  D.  Nicholson,  614  S.  W.  "A"  St.,  Richmond,  Ind. 
James  A,  Norton,  115  Second  St.,  N.  E.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Marion  S.  Norton,   115  Second  St.,  N.  E.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Dorothy  North,  Chicago,  111, 


Wendell  F.  Oliver,  Lynn,  Mass. 

William  T.  Oliver,  69  High  Rock  St.,  Lynn,  Mass. 

Seymour  H.  Olmsted,  873  Oak  St.,  Winetka,  111. 

Herman  F.  Oppenlander,  1071  Arnold  St.,  Portland,  Ore. 

Sarah  M.  Orr,,  5645  Christian  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Walter  E.  Oswald,  Charm,  Ohio. 

Willard  B.  Otis,  R.  D.  60,  Venice  Center,  N.  Y. 

Jonas  B.  Otterson,  Cochituate  Road,  Framingham,  Mass. 

Charles  L.  Outland,  Tarboro,  Edgecombe  Co.,  North  Carolina. 

Elfred  R.  Outland,  George,  Northampton  Co.,  N.  C. 


Mary  H.  Packer,  Newtown,  Pa. 
*Je8se  E.  Packer,  M.  D.,  Newtown,  Pa. 

Edgar  Z.  Palmer,  Swarthmore  College,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 
*J.  Hollowell  Parker,    1023   St.  Paul  St.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Joseph  I.  Parker,  7  Avalon  Apts.,  10th  &  Alabama,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Clyde  C.  Parkes,  635  JefTerson  St.,  Hillsboro,  111. 
*Charles  T.  Parnell,  Short  Hills,  N.  J. 

Arthur  B.  Parsons,  Attelboro  Falls,  Mass. 

Pleasaunce  B.  Parsons,  Attleboro  Falls,  Mass. 

J.  Donald  Peacock,  Charlottesville,  Ind. 

Cecil   E.   Pearson,   Newburg,   Oregon. 

J.  H.  Ward  Pearson,  981  Hawthorn  Avo.,  Portland,  Ore. 

Loren  L.  Peery,  Thorntown,  R.  R.  4,  Indiana. 

Charles  E.   Pennell,  93  W.  LaCrosse  Ave.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Clarence  E.  Pennell,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Charles  F.  Pennock,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Margaret  L.  Pennock,  6010  Green  St.,  Germantown,  Pa. 


278  APPENDIX 

Roger  Pennock,  243  Harvey  St.,  Germantown,  Phila.,  Pa. 

Corwin  H.  Perisho,  Penn  College,  Oskaloosa,  Iowa. 

Samuel  E.  Peters,  Friendsville,  Tennessee. 

Katharine  E.  Phelps,  St.  James  Hospital,  Anking,  China. 

Dixon  C.  Philips,  976  Kensington  Ave.,  Plainfield,  N.  J. 

George  B.  Philips,  53  Oxford  St.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Thomas  H.  Philips,  315  Cedar  Lane,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 

Vernon  L.  Pike,  Placentia,  Orange  Co.,  Cal. 

Laurence  R.  Plank,  3313  2nd  Ave.,  S.,  Minneapolis,  Minn 

Frederick  J.  Pope,  Vassalboro,  R.  F.  D.  50,  Maine. 
*Edmond  C.  Preston,  1220  Master  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
*William  W.  Price,  Swarthmore  College,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 


Q 

*Eugene  K.  Quigg,  111  S.  12th  St.,  Richmond,  Ind. 
Dorothy  Quimby,  17  Field  Ave.,  New  Rochelle,  N.  Y. 


James  W.  Ragsdale,  Greenleaf,  Idaho, 

EUiotte  B.  Ralston,  Northbranch,  Kansas. 

Willis  H.  Ratliff,  R.  No.  2,  Fairmoimt,  Ind. 

William  R.  Redick,  Rockford,  Ohio. 

Gurney  B.  Reece,  Greensboro,  N.  C. 

Robert  E.  Reed,  Brookfield,  Mass. 

William  K.  Reichcrt,  320  W.  84th  St.,  New  York  City. 

Leroy  W.  Reynolds,  Mooresville,  Ind. 

Charles  J.  Rlioads,  1914  S.  Rittenhouse  Sq.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Lillie  F.  Rhoads,  1914  S.  Rittenhouse  Sq.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Hubert  Richardson,  Passaic,  N.  J. 

Richard  A.  Ricks,  1149  West  Ave.,  Richmond,  Va. 

James  W.  Ridpath,  New  Sharon,  Iowa. 

Anna  W.  Roberts,  Moorestown,  N.  J. 

Christopher  Roberts,  Newark,  N.  J. 

E.  Merrill  Root,  55  Putnam  St.,  Sommerville,  Mass. 

Esther  S.  Root,  2  W.  67th  St.,  New  York  City. 

Curtis  D.  Ross,  Haviland,  Kansas. 

Huldah  Ross,  Short  Hills,  N.  J. 

R.  Frank  Ross,  Haviland,  Kansas. 

Luther  Russell,  Drumwright,  Oklahoma. 

Mary  T.  Russell,  79  Trumbull  St.,  New  Haven,  Conn. 


L 


APPENDIX  279 

*Parvin  M.  Russell,  23  W.  106th  St.,  New  York  City. 
Ralph  M.  Riitledge,  %  Ryan  Fruit  Co.,  Yakima,  Wash. 
Walter  N.  Rutt,  Florin,  Lancaster  Co.,  Pa. 

S 

Carleton  E.  Sager,  3700  Hamilton  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Arthur  Santmier,  Hecla,  Manitoba,  Can. 

Charles  S.  Satterthwait,  16  S.  10th  Ave.,  Bethlehem,  Pa. 

M.  Elizabeth  Satterthwaite,  Tecumseh,  Michigan. 

Clifford  R.  Saylors,  1123  State  St.,  Emporia,  Kansas. 

J.  Henry  Scattergood,  Villa  Nova,  Pa. 

Marjory  Scattergood,  3515  Powelton  Ave.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Maria  C.  Scattergood,  3515  Powelton  Ave.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Floyd  W.  Schmoe,  4502  12th  St.,  N.  E.,  Seattle,  Wash. 

Milo  M.  Schoonover,  Byers,  R.  I.,  Kansas. 

Mildred  Scott,  4708  Springfield  Ave.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
*Francis  P.  Sharpless,  West  Chester,  Pa. 
*Lester  B.  Shoemaker,  Tullytown,  Pa. 

B.  Clyde  Shore,  I'adkinville,  N.  C. 

Marvin  H.  Shore,  Yadkinville,  N.  C. 

Arthur  Shrigley,  603  Chestnut  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Edward  A.  Sibley,  811  Westview  Ave.,  Germantown,  Pa. 

Gertrude  E.  Simms,  405  2nd  Nat'l  Bank  Bldg.,  Richmond,  Ind. 
*A.  Clark  Smith,  Greenleaf,  Idaho. 
*Alan  G.  Smith,  6490  Woodbine  Ave.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

James  B.  Smith,  Jr.,  Eureka,  New  Y^ork. 
*Ralph  P.  Smith,  Clayton,  Del. 
*Walter  E.  Smith,  Eureka,  New  York. 

Walter  H.  Smith,  Metamora,  Illinois. 

Warren  ]\I.  Smith,  Gibson,  Iowa. 

Vernon  Smucker,  Orville,  Ohio. 

Ralph  W.  Suavely,  Landisville,  Pa. 

Donald  B.  Snyder,  R.  D.  3,  Wabash,  Indiana. 

Guy  W.  Solt,  Central  City,  Nebraska. 

Charles  E.  Sommer,  10905  Lee  Ave.,  Cleveland.  Ohio. 

Albert  J.  Sommer,  Metamora,  111. 
*William  B.  Southworth,  44  Edge  Hill  Rd.,  Brookline,  Mass. 

Martha  T.  Speakman,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 
*John  H  Speer,  Jr.,  308  Price  St.,  West  Chester,  Pa. 

George  0.  Springer,  R.  R.  Metamora,  111. 

Henry  Stabler,  Fairfax,  Virginia. 

Ernest  I.  Stahly,  Middlebury,  Indiana. 

Alfred  E.  Standing,  Earlham,  Iowa. 


280  APPENDIX 

Arthur  C.  Standing,  Earlham,  Iowa. 

James  G.  Stanislawsky,  3064  Lynde  St.,  Oakland,  Cal. 

James  W.  Steer,  Winona,  Ohio. 

I.  Thomas  Steere,  Haverford,  Pa. 

Robert  M.  Stemen,  R.  No.  7,  Lima,  Ohio. 
*D.  Owen  Stephens,  Moylan,  Pa. 

Walter  C.  Stephens,  415  W.  Howard  St.,  Muncie,  Ind. 

Eli  Stoltzfus,  825  N.  Jefferson  St.,  Lima,  Ohio. 

Mahlon  C.  Stouffer,  Rittman,  Ohio. 
*Henry  B.  Strater,  Louisville,  Ky. 

Mabel  R.  Sturgis,  63  Beacon  St.,  Boston,  Mass. 

J.  Emel  Swanson,  7827  62nd  Ave.,  S.  E.,  Portland,  Ore. 


*Lester  Taggart,  Charlevoix,  Michigan. 

Harry  E.  Tamplin,  5322  82nd  St.,  Portland,  Oregon. 

Ashton  R.  Tatnall,  Jr.,  Center  &  Chestnut,  Redlands,  Cal. 

David  S.  Tatum,  322  W.  Randolph  St.,  Chicago,  111. 

Oliver  P.  Tatum,  6  Park  Road,  Llanerch,  Pa. 

Dr.  Marianna  Taylor,  St.  Davids,  Pa. 

Charles  M.  Teague,  10  Church  St.,  Gonic,  N.  H. 

Harvey  S.  Thatcher,  Utica,  Ohio. 

Alice  B.  Thomas,  Moses  Brown  School,  Providence,  R.  I. 

Bevan  W,  Thomas,  409  N.  Bright  Ave.,  Whittier,  Cal. 

Cleaver  S.  Thomas,  1149  Potter  St.,  Chester,  Pa. 
*L.  Ralston  Thomas,  Moses  Brown  School,  Providence,  R.  I. 

Walter  E.  Thomasson,  912  Villa,  Pasadena,  Cal. 

Russell  W,  Thornburg,  Urbana,  Ohio. 

Arthur  G.  Thorp,  404  W.  State  St.,  Media,  Pa. 

James  Thorp,  Media,  Pa. 
*William  C.  Titcomb,  66  Stone  St.,  Augusta,  Maine. 

Morris  N.  Tomlinson,  Westfield,  Indiana. 

Frederick  0.  Tostenson,  Le  Grande,  Iowa. 

James  O.  Tow,  R.  R.  10,  Columbia,  Mo. 

Augusta  Townsend,  15  Innes  Ave.,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 
*J.  Coleman  Traviss,  5  Holmes  St.,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 

Clay  A.  C.  Treadway,  Macksville,  Kansas. 

Harold  M.  Tucker,  Nampa,  Idaho. 

U 

Byron  E.  Underwood,  Jr.,  2041  Francisco  St.,  Berkeley,  Cal. 
Leigh  R.  Urban,  No.  Brookfield,  Mass. 


APPENDIX  281 

♦Alfred  C.  Vail,  23rd  and  Howard  Sts.,  Chester,  Pa. 

Edwin  H.  Vail,  333  Channing  Ave.,  Palo  Alto,  Cal. 

Ito  Van  Cilesen,  340  N.  Millwood  Ave.,  Wichita,  Kansas. 
*Arend  M.  Vlaskamp,  1530  W.  7th  St.,  ^funcie,  Ind. 

Stephen  Vlaskamp,  1530  W.  7th  St.,  ]Muncie,  Ind. 

Ernest  N.  Votaw,  20  Rigby  Ave.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

W 

Leroy  G.  Waggener,  Central  City,  Nebraska. 

Dorothy  Walton,  802  Mt.  Curve  Ave.,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Alfred  R.  Ware,  Worcester,  Mass. 

Willard  H.  Ware,  Worcester,  Mass. 
*Luther  E.  Warren,  Wilmington,  Ohio. 

Robert  F.  Way,  Central  City,  Neb. 
*William  Webb,  West  Chester,  Pa. 
*Edward  L.  Webster,  4830  Penn  St.,  Frankford,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

John  W.  Weightman,  Jr.,  2823  E.  4th  St.,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

William  B.  Weightman,  2823  E.  4th  St.,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

Ethelynde  Weil,  212  W.  Washington  Square,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

George  R.  Wells,  1028  6th  St.,  S.  E.,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Alfred  E.  Wetherald,  Bryantown,  Maryland. 

*  William  H.  B.  Whitall,  512  Church  Lane,  Germantown,  Philadelphia, 
Pa. 

Frances  M.  White,  Cardington,  Pa. 
*Headley  S.  White,  Langhorne,  Pa. 

Paul  L.  Whitely,  R.  F.  D.  21,  Fairmount,  Indiana. 

Ralph  E.  Whitely,  Milton,  Indiana. 

Charles  L.  Whitney,  312  Camden  Rd.,  London. 

T.  Barclay  Whitson,  Moylan,  Pa. 

George  H.  Wild,  28  Cha'loner  St.,  Fall  River,  Mass. 

Walter  E.  Wildman,  Selma,  Ohio. 

Jonathan  G.  Williams,  514  N.  Raymond  Ave.,  Pasadena,  Gal. 

L.  Griswold  Williams,  66  Willets  Ave.,  New  London,  Conn. 

Clarence  C.  Willits,  Urbana,  Ohio. 

Charles  D.  Winslow,  R.  1,  Carthage,  Indiana. 

Earle  M.  Winslow,  ^larshalltown,  Iowa. 

J.  Ra\Tnond  Winslow,  Afarshalltown,  Iowa 

Leonard  F.  Winslow,  George,  N.  C. 

John  C.  Winston,  Jr.,  8.32  Stillman  Ave.,  Redlands,  Cal. 

Gerald  IT.  Wood,  Central  College,  Central  City,  Neb. 

Raymond  V.  Wood.  280  Jackson  St.,  Lawrence,  Masa. 

Richard  R.  Wood,  Riverton,  N.  J. 

Roy  C.  Woods,  301  "K"  Ave.,  Oskaloosa,  Iowa. 


282  APPENDIX 

Edward  N.  Wright,  Moylan,  Pa. 
Lester  B.  Wright,  Newberg,  Oregon. 
Noah  V.  Wright,  Farmland,  Indiana. 


Floyd  Yoder,  Shipshewana,  Indiana. 
Solomon  E.  Yoder,  R.  D.  1,  Bellville,  Pa. 
Wilmer  J.  Young,  Springville,  Iowa. 


J.  Thompson  Zaehary,  Snow  Camp,  N.  C. 
*Edwin  C.  Zavitz,  Coldstream,  Ontario,  Can. 

John  S.  Zimmerman,  Ronks,  Pa. 
*John  D.  Zook,  care  of  Charleston  Mail,  Charleston,  W.  Va. 


APPENDIX  B 


Equipes  and  Centers  of  Work  in  France 


Abbeville 

Apremont 

Arcis-sur-Aube 

Attigny   (Ardennes) 

Aubr^ville 

Auz^ville 

Avocourt 

Bar-le-Duc   (Meuse) 

Bar-sur-Aube 

Beauchamps 

Besanc'on   (Doubs) 

Bettancourt   (Marne) 

Blesme   (Marne) 

Brabant-en-Argonne 

Boureuilles  (Meuse) 

Brizeaux 

Buzancy    (Ardennes) 

Chalons    (Marne) 

Champlat    (Marne) 

("harmont    (Marne) 

Chatel  Ch6h6ry 

Chatillon 

Chavanges    (Aube) 

Cheppy 

Chevieres    (Ardennes) 

Cierges 

Clermont-cn-Argonne 

Compiegne    (Oise) 

Cuchery   (^larne) 

Courcelles   (Meuse) 

Dole-du-Jura 

Dombasle-en-Argonne 

Dun-Rur-^reuse 

Eaux  Bonnes    (Basses 


Esmery-Hallon   (Somme) 
Esnes 

Evian-les-Bains 
Evres  (Meuse) 
Exerraont 

ri6ville  ( Ardennes ) 
Foreste 
Fromer^ville 
G  i  vry-en- Argonne 
Golancourt 
Gondrecourt   (Meuse) 
Grandpr^    (Ardennes) 
Grange-le-Compte   (Meuse) 
Gruny 

Ham   (Somme) 
Issoncourt 
Jubecourt    ( Meuse ) 
ha,  Chalade  (Meuse) 
Lapalisse  (Allier) 
La  Val 

Le  Neufour   (Meuse) 
Les  Islettes    (Meuse) 
I>ies  Scnados    (^leuse) 
Li^ge    (Belgium) 
Lisieux 
Locheres 
Lfouviers  (Eure) 
Luneville 
Lyons 
Malabry 

Marcq    (c/o  Grange-le-Compte) 
Mareuil-lc-Port   (Marne) 
Marscillo 
Pyrenees)       Mcrv-sur-Scine  (Aube) 
283 


284 


APPENDIX 


Montblainville 
MoiiLceuu  les-Mines 
jNlontiaucon 
Moulins 

JNlouzon  (Ardennes) 
Nettancourt 
Neuvilly  (Meuse) 
Ornans   (Doubs) 
Pargny-les-Reims   (Marne) 
Paris,  53,  Rue  de  Rivoli 
4,  Rue  Chevreux 

85,  Rue  de  Sevres 

27,  Rue  Boullainvillier,  Passy 
Plessis-Piquet 
Pompadour,  Correze 
Rattentout   (Meuse) 
Recicourt   (Meuse) 
Rheiras 
Romilly  (Seine) 


Samoens  (Haute  Savoie) 

Sermaize  (Marne) 

Sommerance   (Ardennes) 

Souhesmes  (Meuse) 

St.  Etienne 

St.  Jurin    (Meuse) 

Ste.  Menehould    (Marne) 

St.  Remy 

Troves  (Aube) 

Varennes  (Meuse) 

Venault-les-Dames   (Marne) 

Verdun    ( .ueuse) 

Verneuil  (Marne) 

very  (Meuse) 

Vierzon 

Ville-en-Tardenois  (Marne) 

Villers-sous-Chatillon    (Marne) 

Vitry-le-Frangois   (Marne) 

Violaine  (Marne) 


PRINTED    IN    THE    UNITED    STATJIS    OP    AMERICA 


DUE  DATE 

m 

\j 

Printed 
In  USA 

<=°1;"MBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 


0045465754 


940.9/ 


Jr724 


3 

-3 


JftHl 


